




ft 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



































































If thou wilt be perfect go sell what thou hast and give to the 
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven and come follow Me. 

—Matt, xix : 21. 



WHAT SHALL I BE? 


A CHAT WITH YOUNG PEOPLE 


BY THE 

Ta 

Reverend Francis Cassilly, S.J. 

\\ 


“And every one that hath left house, or brothers, 
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, 
or lands for My name, shall receive a hundredfold, 
and shall possess life everlasting.” (Matt, xix: 29) 


NEW YORK 
THE AMERICA PRESS 


1914 


IMPRIMI POTEST 



A. J. Burrowes, S.J. 

Provincial Missouri Province 


NIHIL OBSTAT 

Remegius Lafort 


Censor 


IMPRIMATUR 

^ John Cardinal Farley 

Archbishop of New York 


JUK29 1914 



Copyright 1914 

BY 

The America Press 

©C1.A376I91 

*-0 / 




Letter to the Author 
from Reverend A. Vermeersch, S.J. 

Louvain, le 23 fevrier, 1914. 
Mon Reverend Pere: P. C. 

Votre petit livre me plait extremement. II expose 
une doctrine tres solide avec une merveilleuse clarte. 
D’ une lecture agreable, il interessera la jeunesse des 
ecoles, et I’encouragera a faire un choix genereux 
d’ etat de vie. J’ estime que, traduit en damand et en 
frangais, il ferait egalement du bien a nos collegiens 
de Belgique. 

Votre devoue en N. S. et M. I. 

A. Vermeersch. 


Translation 
My Reverend Father: 

Your little book pleases me exceedingly. Its doc¬ 
trine is very sound and set forth with wonderful 
clearness. It makes pleasant reading, and will interest 
the young of school age, and encourage them to make 
a generous choice of a state of life. In my opinion, a 
Flemish and French translation would also be profit¬ 
able to our college students in Belgium. 

Devotedly yours in Our Lord and Mary Immaculate, 

A. Vermeersch. 




TO THE THOUSANDS 
OF TRUE-HEARTED BOYS AND GIRDS 
HE HAS BEEN BLESSED TO KNOW 
OF WHOM 

SOME ARE GONE TO HEAVEN 
AND MANY ARE BATTLING FOR THE RIGHT 
IN THE SANCTUARY 
THE CLOISTER OR THE WORLD 
AND WITH ALL OF WHOM 
HE HOPES ONE DAY TO BE REUNITED 
FOREVERMORE 
IN GOD’S OWN COURTS 
THIS LITTLE BOOK 
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
BY THE AUTHOR 


IV 


PREFACE 


In this little book the writer has aimed to present, 
in brief and simple form, sound principles which may 
assist the young in deciding their future course of 
life. The subject of vocation, as it is called, has suf¬ 
fered much, during the last two or three centuries, at 
the hands of rigorist authors, who so hedged the ap¬ 
proach to religious life with difficulties and restric¬ 
tions, as to frighten or repel many aspiring hearts 
from it. 

Great stress was laid by these writers on the special 
interior attraction, by which God was supposed always 
to manifest His call, so that no one might legitimately 
enter the state of perfection, unless he felt this un¬ 
mistakable impulse from within. And on the other 
hand, given this evidence of the Divine predilection, 
to disregard it was a sinful preferring of one's own 
will to God’s, which, in all likelihood, would be at¬ 
tended with grave consequences for this world and 
the next. 

Spiritual writers of the last decade have been re¬ 
reading the Fathers and great Theologians upon this 
subject, and as a result the cobwebs of misconception 
are being swept away. The Reverend A. Vermeersch, 
S.J., of Louvain, deserves the gratitude of all for his 
lucid and convincing treatment of religious vocation, 
in his “De Religiosis Institutis et Personis” (Vol. II, 
Supplement III; also Vol. I, P. 4, C. I), where he 
clearly shows from Scripture, the writings of the 
Fathers and leading theologians, the true nature of the 
invitation to the evangelical life. The reader is also 
referred to the article on “Vocation,” by the same 
author, in the Catholic Encyclopedia. 

Another document throwing light on the subject, 
is the Decree of July 15, 1912, framed by a special 


PREFACE 


commission of Cardinals appointed to examine the 
work of Canon Joseph Lahitton on “La Vocation Sac- 
erdotale.” This Decree, approved by the Holy Father, 
contains the following passage: Vocation to the 
priesthood “by no means consists, at least necessarily 
and according to the ordinary law, in a certain in¬ 
terior inclination of the person, or promptings of the 
Holy Spirit, to enter the priesthood. But on the con¬ 
trary, nothing more is required of the person to be 
ordained, in order that he may be called by the bishop, 
than that he have a right intention, and such fitness of 
nature and grace, as evidenced in integrity of life and 
sufficiency of learning, which will give a well-founded 
hope of his rightly discharging the office and obliga¬ 
tions of the priesthood.” This Decree does away, at 
once, with the special spiritual attraction, always and 
essentially required by so many for vocation to the 
priesthood. 

It may not be rash to conclude, in a similar way, of 
a religious vocation “that nothing more is required of 
the person who is a candidate for religious life, in 
order that he may be admitted to the novitiate by the 
lawful superior of an order, than that he have a right 
intention, and such fitness of nature and grace re¬ 
quired by the order, as will give a well-founded hope 
of his rightly discharging the obligations of the re¬ 
ligious life in that order.”' 

The present treatise aims at no more than putting 
in form suitable to the young the sound conclusions of 
such reliable authors as Father Vermeersch, Canon 
Lahitton and Rev. P. Bouvier, S.J. 

As to the advisability of priests, parents and teachers 
fostering and developing in the young the desire of a 
religious life, the words of St. Thomas are positive: 
“They who induce others to enter religion, not only 
commit no sin, but even merit a great reward.” 
(Summa, 2 a 2*, Quacst. 189, art. 9.) 

vi 


PREFACE 


And the Third Council of Baltimore, urging priests 
to develop vocations to the priesthood, says: “We 
exhort in the Lord and earnestly entreat pastors and 
other priests diligently to search after and find out, 
among the boys committed to their care, those who 
seem suited and called to the clerical state. If they 
find any boys of good disposition, of pious inclination, 
of devout and generous minds, and able to learn; who 
give promise of persevering in the sacred ministry, let 
them nourish the zeal of such, and sedulously foster 
these precious germs of vocation/’ (Paragraph 136.) 

Priests, teachers, confessors and others who have 
dealings with the young, will find it very practical to 
have at hand several copies of some reliable booklet 
on the priesthood and religious life, which they may 
give or lend, as occasion offers, to promising boys and 
girls. Such books will, at least, make their readers 
think, and God’s grace frequently acts through the 
medium of the written or spoken word. 

Creighton University, Omaha, 

Easter Sunday, 1914. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Getting a Start. 1 

II Aiming High. 4 

III The State of Perfection. 8 

IV Who Are Invited?. 12 

V Does Christ Want Me?.!. 18 

VI I Feel No Attraction. 23 

VII Suppose I Make a Mistake?. 28 

VIII The World Needs Me. 32 

IX Must I Accept the Invitation?. 36 

X I Am Too Young. 39 

XI The Priesthood. 45 

XII The Teacher’s Aureole. 50 

XIII Showing the Way. 56 

XIV The Parents’ Part. 61 

XV A Parting Word. 66 


viii 

















CHAPTER I 


GETTING A START 

Youth is the dream time of life. It views the world 
through the prism of fancy, tinting all with rainbow 
colors. It lives in a creation of its own, where it rules 
with magic wand, conjuring into its realm the beauti¬ 
ful, the heroic and the magnificent, and banishing only 
the prosaic and commonplace. To the youthful 
dreamer, every ruler is all-powerful, every soldier 
brave, every fire-fighter a hero, and every editor a 
wizard, at whose nod the news of the world flies to the 
huge cylinder presses, and then flutters away in white¬ 
winged sheets through town and country. 

But gradually, the stern realities of life forcing them¬ 
selves on the maturing mind, it realizes that it must 
choose from the various activities that make up the 
sum of human existence. The thoughtful boy and girl 
then begin to ask the question, “What shall I be?” or 
“What shall I do?” The various walks of life spread 
out before them like a maze of tracks in a railway 
station, all leading away in dwindling perspective to 
the witching land of the unknown. 

An ambitious boy 'views with delight the various 
professions, and pictures to himself in turn the great 
deeds and triumphs of the soldier, the statesman, the 
lawyer, the physician, the architect, and finally perhaps 
the electrician, who plays with the lightning and har¬ 
nesses it to the ever-extending service of mankind. 
All these are votaries of noble avocations, and he who 
excels in any one of them is a hero, and a benefactor 
of his kind. Every occupation which is useful to the 
human race, which contributes to the sum of man’s 
comfort and happiness, is laudable and worthy an 
intelligent being. St. Paul was a tent-maker by trade, 

l 


WHAT SHALL 1 BE? 


and he gloried in the fact that, even during the days 
of his apostleship, he was not a burden to others, but 
supported himself by the labor of his hands. 

Life pursuits rank in dignity and worth, according 
to the perfection or benefit they bestow upon the 
worker himself, and his fellow-man. Far above the 
artisan or husbandman, who occupies himself with the 
material needs of his neighbor, with providing him 
food, raiment and shelter, rise the teacher, writer and 
professional man, who minister to the needs of the 
mind. And highest, perhaps, of natural callings is the 
conduct of the government, which gives peace, order 
and happiness to entire nations. 

But not every pursuit is suited to all dispositions, 
nor can any one hope to excel in all trades and pro¬ 
fessions. The strength of body and skill of hand re¬ 
quired of a mechanic may be lacking to a professional 
man, and the long years of study and experience de¬ 
manded of a physician are possible to but few. Nature 
destines some for a life of action and adventure, for 
the command of armies or the conquering of the wil¬ 
derness ; others it dowers with literary tastes, or the 
power to thrill an audience or guide a State. 

No one is necessarily tied down to any special 
occupation of life. According to your disposition and 
character, your ability and inclination, education and 
training, you are free to select any sphere of action 
within your reach and opportunity. But this very free¬ 
dom of choice sometimes leads to mistakes. One with¬ 
out the proper temperament or ability, lacking in 
patience and sympathy, and unable to make a diagnosis, 
aims to be a physician, and he becomes only a quack. 
Many a one, who aspires to direct the destinies of the 
State, achieves only the station of a political subordinate 
or spoilsman. And one whom nature destines for the 
free and independent life of a farmer, often sentences 
himself to life imprisonment behind the “cribbed and 
cabined” desk of a counting house. 


GETTING A START 


3 


Perhaps the most frequent mistake of young people 
is to tear themselves away from school, where they 
have the opportunity to prepare themselves for the 
higher positions of life, and by so doing deliberately 
limit themselves to a life of mediocrity. They have an 
ambition, but a false one. Eager to enter, though un¬ 
prepared, the arena of life and accomplish great deeds, 
they lack the student’s patience and industry, which 
would crown them in after years with the laurel of 
success. 

Be ambitious then, my young friend, aim high in 
life; endeavor to achieve something great for yourself 
and for mankind. You will have only one life in this 
world, then make the most of it. Take advantage of 
your opportunities. Attend school as long as you can, 
because generally the greater your knowledge and 
learning, your training and preparation, the higher and 
wider the career that will open before you. 

All legitimate pursuits of life have been illustrated 
and adorned by numberless Christian heroes and hero¬ 
ines, who served God, sanctified themselves, and 
brought glory to the Christian name by their fidelity to 
duty. Would you be a soldier? Could there be more 
glorious names than those of St. Sebastian and St. 
Martin; the Crusader, Godfrey de Bouillon, and the 
Grand Knight of Malta, de la Valette? 

Do you long to ride the ocean waves, and brave the 
tempest? What more heroic predecessor would you 
have than the great “Admiral,” the navigator and dis¬ 
coverer, Columbus? If your ambition be to sit in the 
councils of State, to steer your country safely through 
breakers and shoals, fix your gaze on Sir Thomas 
More, Daniel O’Connell, Windthorst or Garcia Moreno 
—Christian heroes all. 


CHAPTER II 


AIMING HIGH 

In a garden are flowers varying in hue and form 
and size. The roses blow red and white and pink, 
scenting the air with their myriad petals, the lilies 
lift up their delicate calyxes to the wandering bee, the 
perfumed violets hide their modest heads in beds of 
green, and the fuchsias sway from their stems in lan¬ 
guid beauty. But varied as are the flowers in charm, 
each is perfect of its kind. No artist could improve 
their tints nor trace truer curves; no carver chisel 
more delicate or finished forms. 

And God’s Church is a spiritual garden, where 
bloom souls varying in every virtue, charm and grace, 
and all breathing forth the good odor of Christ. In it 
are school-boys, gentle maidens, devoted mothers and 
fathers of families, rich and poor of every nation and 
clime, of every station and calling. God made them 
all; He loves them all, and on each He has grafted 
the bud of faith, which will blossom forth into all 
supernatural virtues. 

God also wishes each one in His garden to be per¬ 
fect of his kind. Jesus, sitting on the Mount of the 
Beatitudes, and teaching the multitudes that were 
ranged on the grass about Him, bade them “be perfect 
as also your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt, v: 
48.)* This, then, is the perfection Christ expects us 


♦While this text refers primarily to the perfection of for¬ 
giving enemies, it is applied also by commentators to per¬ 
fection in general, for the reason that it is closely connected 
with the preceding and following exhortation of Our Lord to 
many and various virtues. And even if the text were limited 
expressly to one virtue, the fact that God’s children are urged 
to the perfection of this virtue because it is found perfectly 
4 



AIMING HIGH 


& 


to aim at, the perfection of God Himself, in Whom 
there is nor spot nor wrinkle. He will not be satisfied 
with us, so long as low aims, imperfect motives, dis¬ 
figure our souls and stain our conduct. 

As St. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, 
God chose us before the foundation of the world to be 
“ holy and unspotted in His sight/’ (Eph. i: 4.) In 
fact, St. Paul, whenever he addresses the Christians, 
calls them “saints,” because every Christian man, 
woman and child, is expected to be holy, holy in the 
grace of God, in conduct, in thought and act, at every 
time and place. Every Christian must be sacred, a 
shrine wherein dwells the Divinity, and whose doors 
must be closed to everything profane. “Know you not, 
that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, 
who is in you, whom you have from God; and you 
are not your own ?” (I Cor. vi: 19.) Your soul, then, 
my child, is holy, consecrate to God, and into it must 
enter nothing defiled, nothing savoring of the world, 
its maxims and principles. Keep your soul pure as the 
roseate dawn, clear as starlight and bright as the sun. 

“Every one of you,” said Christ Himself, “who doth 
not renounce all that he possesseth, cannot be my 
disciple.” (Luke xiv: 33.) This seems a hard doc¬ 
trine, for who would be able to give up all he has, 
parents, home and possessions? There are occasions 
when the love of God and the love of creatures come 
into conflict; and when this occurs the true disciple of 
Christ will not hesitate. He will fearlessly sacrifice 
everything, even life itself, rather than forsake his 
Creator. The martyrs did this. St. Agnes gave up 
suitor, home and wealth, and laid down her innocent 
young life, to become the spouse of Christ. The boy 
Pancratius faced the panther in the arena, and the 

in their Heavenly Father, would seem to imply that He, so 
far as imitable by creatures, is the measure and standard of 
their perfection, and hence, as He is the All-Perfect, that they 
too should strive to be perfect in all virtue. 



6 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


yells of a bloodthirsty mob, rather than abjure his 
faith; and so won a martyr’s crown. 

Perfection then is our destiny. In heaven we shall 
attain to it, and in this life we should begin to practice 
it. If we would have God’s love in its fulness, if we 
would always be worthy to nestle in His bosom, to 
feel the arms of His affection drawn close about us, we 
must never sully our conscience with the least taint of 
sin. For all the world we would not offend our par¬ 
ents, and God is to us in place of father and mother 
and all. He is the infinitely perfect; He is love and 
beauty and tenderness itself, and His absorbing desire 
is to reproduce similar qualities in us. 

But how are we to be perfect? By always doing 
His holy Will, as we see it and know it, to the best of 
our ability. Christ issues the clarion call to all Chris¬ 
tians, to take up their cross daily and follow Him.. 
He who always does his best, and, obeying the dictates 
of conscience, walks by faith and charity in all his 
actions before God, and conducts himself in all cir¬ 
cumstances of life according to the principles of faith 
and reason, is living up to the Divine call, and striving 
after perfection. 

“But are there any such persons in the world?” 
some one may ask. “They say that there is nothing 
perfect under the sun, and this time-honored adage, 
no doubt, applies to persons as well as to things.” It 
is true that very few are perfect in the sense that they 
sojourn in the world, unmoved, like the angels, by the 
least ruffling of passion. But there are many, very 
many, pure, holy souls, who aim constantly at perfec¬ 
tion, and who attain to it substantially; for day by 
day, year in and year out, they keep themselves from 
the guilt of serious sin, and delighting to carry out 
God’s will in all their actions, frequently draw nigh 
the Tabernacle to commune in heavenly raptures with 
their Love “behind the trellis.” 

Nor is the number of these elect souls limited to 


AIMING HIGH 


7 


any one calling or profession, for they are found in 
the seclusion of home, in the crowded mart, in the 
stress of business and professional life. When the 
week-day Mass is over in the parish church, and the 
little band of devout worshippers descend from the 
church steps, would one not say that there is a look of 
heavenly peace upon their countenances, a peace that 
overflows to their features from the deep well-springs 
of charity within ? No legitimate walk of life, then, is 
alien to perfection. All Christians are urged to it; 
and many attain to it. They use the things of this 
world “as though they used them not,” their hearts are 
free from undue attachment to the possessions of earth, 
and they go through life as pilgrims to their final 
home; and should God be pleased to reward their 
constancy by sending them trials and sufferings, they 
will come forth from the ordeal like pure, refined gold. 


CHAPTER III 


THE STATE OF PERFECTION 

Speaking one day to the multitude, Our Lord likened 
the Kingdom of Heaven “to a merchant seeking good 
pearls, who, finding one pearl of great price, went away 
and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matt, 
xiii: 45-46.) What is this precious pearl that so 
charmed the merchant as to make him sacrifice all he 
had to gain possession of it? It is doubtless the true 
Church, or faith in Christ, but theologians apply the 
parable also to the highest union with God by charity, 
or Christian perfection. Perfection, then, may be 
called this lustrous pearl, more precious and radiant 
than any which gleams in royal diadem. You may 
buy it, but the price is the same to all. You must offer 
in exchange all that you have, keeping nothing back. 
Are you willing to make the bargain? 

There have been many Christians throughout the 
centuries who were enamored of this perfection. They 
sighed and longed for it, but, alas! the conditions in 
which they lived, the temptations that lay about them, 
the cares of raising a family and struggling for a 
livelihood, so engrossed their attention and seduced 
their affections, that they almost despaired of living 
entirely for God, and thus attaining perfection. A 
young man of high aspirations one day came to Jesus, 
and asked Him what he must do to gain eternal life. 
The Master replied, “Keep the commandments.” But 
the young man was not satisfied with this; he 

wished to do something more for heaven, as we 
learn from his reply, “All these have I kept from 

my youth; what is still wanting to me?” Then 

Jesus spoke the memorable words that have echoed 
down the ages, “If thou wilt be perfect, go 

8 


THE STATE OF PERFECTION 


sell what thou hast, and give to the poor . . . 

and come, follow me.” (Matt, xix: 21.) 

The questioner, so the Scripture records, went away 
sorrowful, for he had great wealth. He was willing, 
no doubt, to give alms and bountifully, but to sacrifice 
all his possessions and live in poverty—this was be¬ 
yond his generosity. Christ’s advice, however, has not 
fallen by the wayside. Theologians tell us that in His 
brief words Our Lord indicated the evangelical life, 
which He elsewhere explained more fully, bidding the 
youth become poor and then come and follow Him in 
perfect chastity and obedience (Suarez, “De Reli- 
gione,” lib. iii, c. 2). 

The teaching thus presented by Christ has never 
been fruitless in the Church. Myriads of chosen souls, 
more magnanimous than the young man, have heeded 
the Saviour’s admonition and hastened to sacrifice all 
for His sake. The nature of the evangelical life—so 
called because taught in the “Evangelium,” the Latin 
word for Gospel—consists in the practice of the three 
counsels, voluntary poverty, perfect chastity and 
obedience. And why is the exercise of these three 
counsels so excellent? Because by them a Christian 
parts with everything that is most pleasing to mere 
nature. By poverty he renounces his possessions and 
the right of ownership; by perfect chastity, the 
pleasures of the body; and by obedience, his free will. 
Could one do more than to give up everything he 
owns, and then complete the renunciation by dedica¬ 
ting his body, aye, his very soul, to Christ? Nothing 
is left that he may call his own. He is a stranger in 
the world, without home, parents or family, money or 
earthly ties; he is all to God, and God is all to him. 

While a person may be in the way of perfection, 
by observing the counsels privately, with or without 
a vow, if he takes perpetual vows in a religious order 
or congregation approved by the Church, he is in what 
is called “the state of perfection,” or “the religious 


10 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


state.” The vows give a final touch to the holocaust 
in either case, since by them he offers all he has and is 
and forever, so that it becomes unlawful for him to 
retract his offering. He who exemplifies all Christian 
virtues to a high degree of excellence, according to 
his condition of life, may be called perfect, and to this 
perfection all Christians are called. But, religious, 
that is, they who live in the religious state, bind them¬ 
selves by profession to aim at living a perfect life. 
They have heeded Christ’s invitation, “If thou wilt be 
perfect,” and engaged themselves, under the sanction 
of the Church, to the obligation of striving for per¬ 
fection. 

No one could claim that all religious men and women 
are actually perfect; but they are in the state of per¬ 
fection—that is, by virtue of their state and profession 
they are bound to the observance of their vows and 
rules, which observance, in the course of time, will be 
able to lead them to the attainment of such perfection 
as weak mortals, with God’s grace, can hope to ac¬ 
quire in this life. In response to Christ’s exhortations, 
we find throughout the world to-day a great army of 
religious men and women, white-robed Dominicans, 
brown-garbed Franciscans, followers of St. Benedict, 
St. Augustine, St. Alphonsus, St. Vincent de Paul, and 
St. De la Salle, the Blessed Madeleine Sophie Barat, 
Julie Billiart, Jean Eudes, and of numerous other 
saints, who, under the standards of their varied in¬ 
stitutes, march steadily in the footprints of the lowly 
Nazarene, Who had not whereon to lay His head. 

The ambitious Christian boy and girl, then, will aim 
at doing their best, and must, if they desire close com¬ 
panionship with Christ, strive after perfection, for 
such is the Master’s desire. But should a youth have 
further ambitions, and say to himself, “I desire to dis¬ 
tinguish myself in God’s service, to lead for Him a 
life of action and achievement, wherein my exertions 
will bring amplest returns for eternity,” will he refuse 


THE STATE OF PERFECTION 


11 


to consider the life of the counsels? Will he not 
rather ask himself whether this manner of life is prac¬ 
ticable, and possibly even meant and intended, for him? 
Choose then, my young friend, your sphere of life, 
but deliberately and carefully, remembering that on 
your decision will largely depend your greater happi¬ 
ness in this world and the next. 


CHAPTER IV 


WHO ARE INVITED? 

The boy or girl who is deliberating on a future 
career will naturally ask, “Who are invited to the 
higher life? Is the invitation extended to all, or 
limited to the chosen few?” 

Let us try to find out the answer to these questions. 
One day the disciples of Our Lord having asked Him 
(Matt, xix: 11-12) whether it were not better to ab¬ 
stain from marriage, He replied, “All men take not 
this word, but they to whom it is given. . . . He 

that can take it, let him take it.” St. Paul also writes 
to the Corinthians (I Cor. vii: 7-8), “I wish you all to 
be as myself, . . . but I say to the unmarried 

. . . it is good for them, if they so continue, even 

as I.” 

Now, let us examine these passages, according to 
the interpretations of the Fathers and Doctors of the 
Church, so that there will be no danger of reading a 
wrong meaning into them. There is question in both 
texts of abstaining from marriage, of advising the un¬ 
married not to marry, which, of course, is equivalent 
to advising them to practice perpetual chastity. St. 
Paul says clearly and forcibly that he would desire all 
to remain unmarried like himself. However, in the 
next verse he exempts from his advice those who do 
not control themmselves. What does he mean by this ? 
There are some who have strong passions, or who by 
self-indulgence have so strengthened their lower nature 
and weakened their will-power, that lifelong continence 
seems beyond them. Such persons, therefore, who 
know from experience that they will not overcome 
temptation and sin, or who find the struggle too hard 
to continue, he advises to marry. 

12 


WHO ARE INVITED ? 


13 


We may now inquire whom Our Lord meant by 
those “to whom it is given.” Does He mean that the 
power of practicing virginal chastity is given only to 
the selected few or to the many? St. Chrysostom, in¬ 
terpreting His words, says that this gift of chastity “is 
given to those who choose it of their own accord,” 
adding that the “necessary help from on high is pre¬ 
pared for all who wish to be victors in the struggle 
with nature” (M. P. G., t. 58, c. 600).* St. Jerome 
tells us that this gift “is given to those who ask it, who 
wish it and labor to obtain it” (M. P. L., t. 26, c. 135). 
St. Basil explains that “to embrace the evangelical 
mode of life is the privilege of every one.” (M. P. G., 
t. 32, c. 647.) To the sophistical objection that if all 
persons practiced virginity marriage would cease, and 
so the human race would perish, St. Thomas (Summa, 
2 a 2®, Quaest. 189, art. 7) gives'the reply of St. Jerome, 
“This virtue is uncommon and desired by com¬ 
paratively few”; and then adds, “This fear is just as 
foolish as that of one who hesitates to take a drink of 
water, for fear of drying up the river.” 

Can it be said, then, that every boy and girl, with the 
exception noted by St. Paul, is advised and exhorted to 
preserve virginal chastity throughout life? To under¬ 
stand aright the answer to this question, we must re¬ 
member that there are two general courses of life, the 
married and the unmarried, open to all; every person 
necessarily being found in the one or the other. And 
each individual of the race is privileged to make a free 
and voluntary choice of either condition; no one having 
the right to interfere with this personal liberty, by for¬ 
bidding or prescribing wedlock to any properly quali¬ 
fied person. 

Both these states have been created by God, and both 
are His gifts to man. The nuptial tie, elevated to the 


*This and similar references are to the Migne edition of the 
Greek and Latin Fathers. 



14 


WHAT SHALL I BEf 


dignity of a sacrament, is likened by St. Paul to the 
union existing between Christ and the Church. “A 
prudent wife/’ says the Book of Proverbs (xix: 14), 
“is properly from the Lord.” Whoever marries “in the 
Lord” performs a virtuous act, and the Church, to show 
her appreciation and approbation of it, invests the wed¬ 
ding contract with a rich and hallowed ceremonial. 
They, then, who wed do something pleasing to God; 
but they who, for virtue’s sake, forego their natural 
right of marrying, make an offering still more grateful 
to Him. 

This is the doctrine in the abstract. But in its appli¬ 
cation to individual cases we find some so situated, so 
hampered by their own temperament and disposition, 
or by actual conditions about them, that a life of perfect 
continence seems impracticable for them. One, for in¬ 
stance, who yearns for the safety and seclusion of the 
cloister, and yet sees its doors closed against him for 
some reason, feels himself constrained to take refuge 
from the storm and stress of the world in the sanctuary 
of marriage. On such persons the Creator does not 
impose a burden above their strength. Wishing us to 
be happy and content even in this life, as well as the 
next, He asks of us here only a “reasonable service.” 

Guided by these principles, the great majority of the 
faithful in all ages have deemed it prudent and ex¬ 
pedient for them to marry. And the wisdom and pru¬ 
dence of their choice God approves and commends. For 
His Providence manifests itself to us in all the events 
and circumstances of life, dwelling alike in the fall of 
the leaf and the roll of the wave, and speaking to our 
hearts by the voice of all creatures. While, then, ex¬ 
ternal or internal impediments may prevent some from 
hearkening to Christ’s call, and their own will may 
deter others, His invitation of itself does not exclude 
any; it is general, ever waiting for those able and 
willing to accept it. 

But does not a person have to feel a special call be- 


WHO ARE INVITED ? 


15 


fore binding himself to perpetual chastity? To answer 
this let us suppose that one is considering the advisa¬ 
bility of daily attendance at Mass or of total ab¬ 
stinence from intoxicating liquor. In themselves these 
are good works and under proper advice a person might 
engage himself to their performance. Grace would be 
required for them, as for every other act of super¬ 
natural virtue, but no one would say that to assume 
such obligations a special call from heaven is pre¬ 
requisite. Now, chastity is governed by the same laws 
as other virtues, by the same laws as mortification, 
alms-deeds and works of charity. Every virtuous act 
requires two things, the grace and the will to cooperate 
with the grace; and these two are also the only req¬ 
uisites for the exercise of continence; a special in¬ 
spiration being no more necessary for it than for per¬ 
petual abstinence from meat or spirituous liquors. 

Lifelong virginity is, of course, a higher, nobler and 
more far-reaching virtue than the others mentioned, 
but it involves no special personal call. If this were 
required, in addition to the general invitation of Scrip¬ 
ture, the doctrine of the Fathers that all are invited 
could scarcely be true. If all are invited, then he who 
wishes must have the power to accept the invitation. If 
two calls are necessary, one general and the other par¬ 
ticular, he who has only the first may be said to have 
only half an invitation, which seems very absurd, and 
certainly is contrary to the practically unanimous 
teaching of the Fathers. 

St. Thomas tells us: “We should accept the words 
of Christ which are given in Scripture as if we heard 
them from the mouth of Christ. . . . The counsel 

(to perfection) is to be followed by each one not less 
than if it came from the Lord’s mouth to each one per¬ 
sonally. (Opusc. 17, c. 9.) And even granted that the 
devil urges one to enter religions life, it is a good work, 
and there is no danger in yielding to his impulse.” 
(Opusc. 17, c. 10.) 


16 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


Taking these words of the Angelic Doctor for our 
guidance, we realize that the invitation and exhortation 
of St. Paul is general, that it embraces all unmarried 
persons who feel the well-grounded hope within them 
that with God’s grace they can live up to it. 

We may go further and say that, as St. Paul was 
speaking not his own doctrine, but the doctrine of 
Christ, which is unchangeable, it applies equally to-day. 
So one who is convinced that no obstacle, except his 
own will, prevents his acceptance of the Apostle’s ad¬ 
vice, can readily imagine Christ standing before him 
and saying, “My child, you should be more pleasing to 
Me were you to remain unmarried for My sake.” If 
Jesus Christ really stood before you, dear reader, and 
thus addressed you, what would be your reply? There 
can be no doubt that it would be prompt and in ac¬ 
cordance with His wish. You would say, “If God so 
loves me as to make a suggestion to me, as to sue for 
my undivided heart, I shall be only too glad to give 
Him all I have, to make any sacrifice for His sake.” 
But God does speak thus, through the mouth of the 
Apostle, to all who are “zealous for the better gifts.” 

Now, what says your heart? Will it reject the 
special love Christ offers? He says, “I give you the 
choice of two gifts, matrimony or virginity; virginity is 
by far the more precious—but take which you list.” 
Will you be so irresponsive as to reply, “Give me the 
lesser gift; Thy best treasures and best love bestow on 
my companions”? 

Speak thus if you are so minded. God will love you 
still; but can you be surprised if He cherish other gen¬ 
erous souls more ? Take or reject virginity as you like. 
It is yours for the taking, but if you reject it do not say, 
“I have no call, no invitation to the higher life.” You 
have the invitation now, in common with other Chris¬ 
tians; and the great-souled ones are they who accept 
it, for “many are called, but few are chosen.” 

It may now be asked whether what has been said 


DOES CHRIST WANT ME? 


17 


about the observance of chastity applies also to poverty 
and obedience. Spiritual writers tell us that the full 
and entire evangelical life includes all these three 
counsels, and that the principles on which one rests are 
common to all. Christ in His call invites those who are 
not hindered by insuperable obstacles, to follow Him in 
the practice of all the counsels, the reason for all being 
the s^me, namely, to sacrifice everything for His sake. 
It is evident, however, that there may be more hin¬ 
drances to the observance of all three counsels than to 
the keeping of only one. Some religious orders, for 
example, on account of their special work, may demand 
from applicants health, or youth, or talent, or learning, 
or other qualifications, which every person does not 
possess. For community life, too, a peaceable temper 
and agreeable manners are usually necessary. More¬ 
over, one may be so bound by obligations of justice and 
charity to his parents or others, that he cannot leave 
them.* The general principle, however, is fixed and 
sure, that the clarion call to the practice of the counsels 
is in itself general, and applicable to all who are not 
hindered by circumstances or impediments from ac¬ 
cepting it. No further special invitation is necessary. 
You who are free have the invitation—take it if you 
wish. 


*It may still be possible, however, for a person who is pre¬ 
vented from entering community life, to practice the counsels 
while living in the world. 



CHAPTER V 


DOES CHRIST WANT ME? 

Said a boy one day, “How in the world does a person 
ever know he is to be a priest?” This little lad was 
a budding philosopher: he wanted to know the reason 
of things. But many an older person has been puzzled 
by the same question. Some boys and girls, having 
a distorted notion of the nature of a vocation, imagine 
that Almighty God picks out certain persons, without 
consulting them, and destines them for the priesthood 
or religious life, whereas all other persons he excludes 
from this privilege. In other words, they think God 
does it all. 

Of course, we know there is an overruling Provi¬ 
dence, Who watches over all His creatures, and par¬ 
ticularly over His elect, distributing His graces and 
favors as He wills, and bringing all things to their 
appointed ends. If, for instance, a boy is blind, and 
for this reason no religious congregation will accept 
him, it is apparent that God does not design him for 
the religious life, though even for him the private 
practice of the counsels might still be open. 

But we must not imagine that God settles every¬ 
thing in this world independently of our free will. 
He wishes us not to steal, but we may, if we choose, 
become thieves. Two boys of the same qualifications, 
let us say, have the general invitation of the Scripture 
to a life of perfection; they both have the same grace, 
which one accepts and the other rejects. What makes 
the vocation in the one case? The action of the boy 
himself in choosing to follow the invitation. And why 
has not the other boy a vocation? Because he de¬ 
clines to correspond with the grace. God does His 
part; He issues the call to all who are free from im- 
18 


DOES CHRIST WANT ME? 


19 


pediment and hindrance. Any one who wishes can ac¬ 
cept the call and thus, in a sense, make his own voca¬ 
tion, for God’s necessary help is ever ready to hand for 
those who will use it. 

We may here remark that, while the practice of all 
virtue comes from man’s free will, it also springs in a 
higher and greater degree from God, the author of 
grace. Without Him we can do nothing. “Who dis¬ 
tinguished! thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast 
not received?” asks St. Paul (I Cor. iv: 7). God’s 
grace must necessarily precede and accompany every 
supernatural action. In a very true sense, while a re¬ 
ligious may say: “I am such voluntarily of my own 
free choice,” he must also admit, “I am a religious by 
the grace of God, Who prepared me, aided me by ex¬ 
ternal and internal helps, enlightened my mind and 
strengthened my will to embrace the life He designs 
for me.” 

In much the same way, a daily communicant may 
say: “It is of my own accord and wish that I receive 
daily, but it is God’s predilection that has prompted me 
to this design, given me the opportunity and strength 
of purpose to carry it out, and keeps me faithful to it, 
so that it is by His grace and Providence that I am a 
daily communicant.” Countless others could adopt the 
same practice, were they not too sluggish or indifferent 
to ask for or correspond with the grace of doing so. 

Most ordinary vocations have several stages of de¬ 
velopment. Very many persons, with all the qualities 
required for the evangelical life, and unimpeded by 
any obstacle, begin to consider, under the influence of 
grace, the advisability of embracing that kind of life. 
This may be called the remote stage of a vocation. 
One who finds himself in this condition of mind, if he 
prays for light and guidance, is faithful to duty and 
generous in the service of God, may be enabled, by a 
further enlightenment of grace to perceive that this life 
is best for him, and consequently that it will be more 


20 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


pleasing to God for him to adopt it, and finally he 
may decide to do so. Such a one has a proximate 
vocation, the only further step required being to carry 
out his purpose. This decision, be it observed, is the 
result of the action of his free will, aided by efficacious 
grace, which is a mark of God’s special love. 

A little illustration may assist us to get a clearer 
idea of the matter. Suppose Christ were to walk into 
your class-room, how would He act? Would He pick 
out four or five pupils and say, “I wish you to be 
religious, the others I do not want, and I forbid them 
such aspirations?” Do you think our loving, gentle 
Redeemer would speak in this harsh way? And yet 
some good, but ill-informed Christians think this a 
faithful representation of God’s method of action in 
this important matter. 

How, then, would Christ really address the class? 
He would say, “My dear children, I want as many of 
you as possible to follow closely in My footsteps, to 
become perfect. I should be glad to have all of you, 
who are not prevented by some insuperable obstacle, 
such as ill-health, lack of talent, home difficulties, or 
extreme giddiness of character. I hope to have a large 
number of volunteers.” How many children in that 
class-room, do you think, would joyfully hold up their 
hands, and beg Him to take them? 

Now, this is truly the way God acts with the indi¬ 
vidual soul. He comes to it perhaps not once only but 
repeatedly, and makes the general offer, using for this 
purpose the living voice of His minister, or the written 
page, or a prompting impulse from within. And when 
God’s desire is so manifested, all that the soul needs 
is to cooperate with grace, if it will. 

That this interpretation of the general call of Scrip¬ 
ture to a higher life is in accord with sound doctrine, 
we can perceive from St. Thomas, who says that the 
resolution of entering the religious state, whether it 
comes from the general invitation of Scripture or an 


DOES CHRIST WANT ME? 


21 


internal impulse, is to be approved. And in his “Catena 
Aurea,” commenting on St. Matt, xix, he quotes St. 
Chrysostom, who holds that “the reason all do not 
take Christ’s advice is because they do not wish to do 
so.” The words “to whom it is given,” according to 
this Greek father, show that “unless we received the 
help of grace, the exhortation would profit us nothing. 
But this help of grace is not denied to those who wish 
it.” 

This is also the teaching of St. Ignatius in his 
“Spiritual Exercises,” where he designates three oc¬ 
casions in which to elect a state of life: the first, 
when God appeals to the soul in some extraordinary 
way; the second, when grace moves the heart by con¬ 
solation and desolation, and the third, when the soul 
without any special motion of grace, “that is, when not 
agitated by divers spirits, makes use of its natural 
powers” to elect the state of life which seems best 
suited to the praise of God and the salvation of one’s 
soul. Evidently a vocation decided in the last-men¬ 
tioned time, implies no special call beyond the 
general scriptural invitation and the determination to 
accept it. 

Some one may ask how it is then that so many 
virtuous boys and girls, endowed with all needful 
qualifications, prompt and ready to respond to the sug¬ 
gestions of grace, yet have no efficacious desire of the 
higher life. It is not for us to search into the secrets 
of hearts, nor to penetrate into the mystery of grace 
and free-will. The Spirit breatheth where He wills, 
and God distributes to each man his own proper gift. 
But, at least, one thing seems certain, that many fail 
to recognize God’s will, because they expect it to be 
manifested in some extraordinary or palpable manner. 
Perhaps, too, they have prepossessions against it, they 
have already marked out their own career, they never 
think about the counsels, or pray for guidance. If all 
our young people only realized that Christ’s invitation 


22 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


is general and meant for them, provided no impedi¬ 
ment exist, and they wish to embrace it; if at the 
same time they kept their hearts free from worldly 
amusements, and applied themselves to prayer and 
self-control, volunteers in greater number would rally 
to Christ’s standard. 


CHAPTER VI 


“l FEEL NO ATTRACTION” 

Some boys and girls, with hearts of gold, have 
often said: “I feel no attraction for the higher life. I 
appreciate it, admire it, and yet I fear it is not for me, 
as I have no inclination to it. If God wanted me, He 
would so perceptibly draw me to Him that there could 
be no mistaking His designs.” 

Almighty God is wonderful in His ways, and He 
“draws all things to Himself,” but by methods varying 
as the temperaments and characteristics of the human 
soul. Sometimes He speaks to His chosen ones in 
thunder tones, as when He struck down St. Paul from 
his horse, on the road to Damascus, saying from 
heaven, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? . . . 

It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” (Acts 
ix: 4.) Again He speaks in gentle accents, as to St. 
Matthew, the publican, when he sat at his door taking 
customs, saying to him, “Follow me!” At other times 
He seems silent and indifferent, standing quietly by, 
letting reason and conscience argue within us, and point 
out our line of action. 

There is what is called vocation by attraction, and 
also such a thing as vocation by conviction. Some of 
the great saints from earliest childhood felt a strong, 
irresistible charm in the higher life; they were drawn 
by the golden chain of love to the cloister. “I have 
never in my life,” said a boy, “thought of being any¬ 
thing but a religious.” Some young people have no 
difficulty in making up their minds to follow Christ, 
their whole bent of thought and character being for 
the nobler life. Like Stanislaus, they ever say, “I 
was born for higher things.” It was such a precocious 
disposition of heart that led St. Teresa to foreshadow 

23 


24 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


her saintly career when, as a little girl, she ran away 
from home to become a hermit. 

But feeling is not always a trustworthy guide, either 
in temporal or spiritual matters; reason, slow but sure, 
is generally much safer. You feel the fascination of 
worldly things, of company and society, fine clothes, 
luxuries and comforts, the dazzling stage of life with 
its applause of men. Is that a sign God destines you 
for worldly vanities ? Quite the contrary, for all Chris¬ 
tians are warned against the seductions of the world 
and the flesh; and the life of the counsels is essentially 
a constant struggle with nature and its allurements. 
“The kingdom of heaven,” we are told, “suffers vio¬ 
lence, and the violent bear it away.” 

If the following of Christ were easy and agreeable 
to the senses, where would be the merit and reward 
of it? Just in proportion as it involves effort and 
the overcoming of natural repugnance, does it become 
high and sublime. “Do not think,” says Our Lord 
(Matt, x: 34), “that I came to send peace upon earth: 
I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came 
to set a man at variance with his father, and the 
daughter with her mother. . . . He that loveth 

father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me.” 

Natural antipathy then to the higher life, far from 
indicating that God does not want us, merely shows 
that the inferior powers of the soul are striving against 
the superior. In fact, when this aversion becomes pro¬ 
nounced, it is sometimes evidence of a keen strife 
going on within us between nature and grace, which 
could scarcely happen unless grace were endeavoring 
to gain the mastery by winning us to Christ. 

“But,” it may be objected, “if nature rebels, does 
not God always give a counter supernatural attraction 
to those whom He calls, so as to smooth the way before 
them?” Certainly God gives the necessary grace to 
perform good actions, but grace is not always accom¬ 
panied by sensible consolation. Suppose a boy is 


/ FEEL NO ATTRACTION 


25 


chided by his parents for a fault and he is tempted to 
deny it; but overcoming the suggestion he admits his 
wrong-doing and expresses sorrow for it. In this he 
acts bravely and with no sense of accompanying satis¬ 
faction, since the pain of his parents’ displeasure is so 
keen as to overcome for the moment any other feeling. 
His action is prompted simply by the conviction of 
duty. 

Accordingly, if a young man knows and clearly sees 
that he has every qualification for the religious life, 
and has even been told so by a competent adviser; 
if he has sufficient talent and learning, a steady dis¬ 
position and virtuous habits, and the persuasion that 
the duties of this state are not above his strength; 
in short, if he is convinced that there is no obstacle, 
save his own will, between him and the higher life, can 
he truly say, “I feel no inclination to such a career, 
and therefore, I have no vocation”? Such a person, of 
course, is free to say, “I will not enter religion,” be¬ 
cause there is no obligation incumbent upon him to 
this state, but he cannot justly say that God withholds 
from him the opportunity or invitation to do so. He 
has already what is called a remote vocation, as was 
explained in the fifth chapter, and what he needs is a 
clearer vision and alacrity of will, which he may have 
good hope of obtaining by earnest prayer and a gen¬ 
erous and insistent offering of self to the disposal of 
the Divine good pleasure. For Our Lord Himself tells 
us: “All things whatsoever you ask when ye pray, be¬ 
lieve that you shall receive, and they shall come unto 
you.” (Mark xi: 24.) 

Remove then, my dear young friend, from your 
mind that false and pernicious notion, which has been 
destructive of so many incipient vocations, that because 
you feel no supernatural inclination or sensible at¬ 
traction, you are not called of God. 

In general, it is sufficient that the aspirant to re¬ 
ligious life be free from impediments, and be desirous 


26 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


of entering it. For eligibility to a particular re¬ 
ligious congregation the applicant must be fit, that is, 
he must have the gifts or endowments of mind, heart 
and body which that institute demands; his desire to 
enter must be based on good and solid motives drawn 
from reason and faith, and he must have the firm re¬ 
solve to persevere in the observance of the rule. When 
to this subjective capacity is added the acceptance of 
the candidate by a lawful superior, his vocation be¬ 
comes complete. 

The requisites, then, are three, two on the part of 
the applicant, namely, fitness and an upright intention, 
and one on the part of the superior, the acceptance or 
call. Nothing more, nothing less is required. If any 
one of these three essentials is wanting, there is no 
vocation to that particular institute. 

It is worthy of observation, however, that these 
qualifications of the applicant need be fully evident 
only towards the end of the novitiate, when the time 
comes for taking the vows and assuming the obliga¬ 
tions. To enter the noviceship, as a rule, much less is 
required, though even for this preparatory step a per¬ 
son must have the serious intention of trying the life 
and discovering whether it is suitable to him, and there 
should be a reasonable prospect of his developing the 
needful qualifications. 

For spiritual directors, then, to regard a vocation as 
something exceeding rare and intricate, to subject the 
candidate and his conscience to searching and critical 
analysis, to harassing cross-examination and prolonged 
tests, as though he were a criminal entertaining a fell 
project, to endeavor to probe into the secret workings 
of grace within him, is only to cloud in fatal obscurity 
an otherwise very simple subject. 

A high-souled youth or maiden may still de deterred 
by the thought, “I now see that I have all the necessary 
qualifications for the higher life, and hence may em¬ 
brace it if I choose, but I fear it will be too difficult 


I FEEL NO ATTRACTION 


27 


for me to carry the yoke without sensible devotion or 
consolation.” In answer to this, we must remember 
that a hundredfold in this world and life everlasting 
in the next are promised to those who leave all to 
follow Christ. In this hundredfold are included many 
privileges and favors bestowed by God upon His chosen 
spouses. Make the effort, overcome nature, decide to 
embrace God’s offer, and you will find yourself over¬ 
whelmed by a deluge of spiritual consolations, which 
God has been withholding from you to try your gen¬ 
erosity and courage; you will experience the truth of 
Christ’s words, “My yoke is sweet, and my burden 
light.” Sensible consolations, in fact, nearly always 
follow the performance of a virtuous act, but seldom 
do they precede it. A hungry person, before sitting 
down to table, may feel cross and out of humor, but 
as soon as he begins to partake of the generous viands 
a feeling of genial content and satisfaction with all the 
world steals over him. 

It would, of course, be an error for any one to think 
that of his own natural powers he could observe the 
counsels; since this, being a supernatural work, de¬ 
mands strength above nature. But he who feels help¬ 
less of himself, should place his entire trust and con¬ 
fidence in God’s grace and assistance, saying, with the 
Apostle, “I can do all things in him who strengtheneth 
me” (Ph. iv: 13). 

Come, then, to the banquet prepared for you by the 
great King. Regale yourself with the spiritual viands 
set before you, and not only will you be strengthened 
to do God’s will, but transported beyond measure with 
spiritual delights. 


CHAPTER VII 


“SUPPOSE I MAKE A MISTAKE?” 

A young man once exclaimed to a friend, “Suppose 
I make a mistake! I could not bear the disgrace of 
leaving a religious order after entering it.” Having 
wrestled with this thought for some time, he finally 
determined to try the religious life, with the result 
that after taking the habit, he was too happy to dream 
of ever laying it aside. 

However, it is not wrong, but highly prudent, for 
any one to consider whether he has the courage and 
constancy to persevere. Religious life is not a pathway 
of roses. It is meant only for true men and valiant 
women, not for soft, languid characters, nor for fickle 
minds, which change as a weather vane. Marriage 
also is a serious step, for it brings much “tribulation 
of the flesh,” and so he who would enter on it must 
earnestly consider whether he can live up to the obliga¬ 
tions it entails. But because marriage has many cares 
and responsibilities, is that a prohibitive reason against 
embracing it? A soldier’s life, too, is hard, and a 
farmer’s; in fact, all pursuits and vocations in this 
world have their sombre side. But he who would win 
success in any career must be ready “with a heart for 
any fate” to meet and overcome all the trials and hard¬ 
ships that await him. 

On one occasion Our Lord made use of the following 
parable (Luke xiv: 28 ): “Which of you having a 
mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down and 
reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have 
wherewithal to finish it: lest after he hath laid the 
foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that -see it 
begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build 
and was not able to finish’?” This parable Our Lord 
28 


SUPPOSE I MAKE A MISTAKE 


29 


seems to apply to those who have the call to the Faith, 
and He concludes with the words, “So likewise every 
one of you that doth not renounce all that he possess¬ 
ed, cannot be my disciple.” 

But His advice is also applicable to one who con¬ 
templates a closer following of Christ by the pathway 
of the counsels. Certainly, by all means, deliberate 
before taking any step of importance in this world. 
Never act on inconsiderate impulse in'any matter of 
moment, but weigh carefully the obligations you are to 
assume, and consider whether you have sufficient 
strength of character to persevere in any good work 
you are undertaking. 

Still, when all is said and done, it remains true that 
timidity is not prudence, nor cowardice caution. Noth¬ 
ing great was ever accomplished in this world without 
courage. Prudence and caution may be overdone, and 
easily degenerate into sloth and inactivity. In a battle 
he who hesitates is lost, and life is the sharpest of 
conflicts. Had Columbus wavered, he would not have 
discovered America. Close followers of Christ must be 
brave and noble souls, willing to risk all, to sacrifice all 
in the service of their leader. If you are excessively 
timid and fearful of making a misstep in your every 
action, it is a fault of character, and unless you over¬ 
come it you will never do great things for yourself or 
others. 

When reason and conscience point the way, plunge 
boldly forward, trusting to the Lord for all the neces¬ 
sary helps you may need to carry out your designs. 
He will never desert you when once you enlist under 
His flag. When it comes to “supposing,” there is no 
end to the dreadful things that might happen, but never 
zmll. Little children have a game called “supposing,” 
each one making his supposition in turn, but even they 
do not anticipate that their creations of fancy will ever 
prove true. A man once said: “I have lived forty 
years, and have had many troubles, but most of them 


30 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


never happened,” meaning that he had often anticipated 
and dreaded evils which never came to pass. 

Let us, however, grant that occasionally a novice 
leaves his order: is that such a disgrace ? By no means; 
he, at least, deserves credit for attempting the higher 
life. He is far more courageous than many Christians 
who are too timorous even to try. After all, what is a 
novitiate for, if not to discover whether the candidate 
has the requisite qualities? And judicious superiors 
will be the first to advise a young man or woman to 
leave, if he or she has wandered into the wrong place. 

There is, moreover, a danger on the opposite side 
that wavering souls often fail to take into account. 
What if they make a mistake by not entering religious 
life? Is it better to err on the side of generosity to 
God, or on the side of pusillanimity? If one make a 
mistake by entering religion he can easily retrace his 
steps before it is too late, but once he commits him¬ 
self to worldly obligations, he can seldom break their 
fetters; and many a man, when overwhelmed with the 
cares and anxieties of life, has regretted, when all too 
late, that he had not hearkened to the voice of grace 
that invited him to the calm and peace of the cloister. 

St. Ignatius thus forcibly expresses the same 
thought: “More certain signs are required to decide 
that God wills one to remain in the secular state, than 
that He wishes him to enter on the way of the counsels, 
for the Lord so openly urged the counsels, while He 
insisted on the great dangers of the other state. 
(Directory, c. 23.) 

The devil, who employs every ruse to wreck a voca¬ 
tion, has one favorite stratagem, which unfortunately 
succeeds only too often. When he cannot induce a 
person to give up entirely the idea of following Christ 
closely, he frequently induces him, under a variety of 
pretexts, to postpone its execution. If he can get the 
person to wait, to delay, he feels he has scored a 
victory, for thus he will have ample opportunity to 


SUPPOSE I MAKE A MISTAKE 


31 


lure his victim to a love of the world, to present the 
vanities of life in such enticing colors, as finally to 
withdraw him altogether from his first purpose. This 
disaster, unfortunately, is only too common, and many 
a one finds out, to his cost, that unseasonable delay 
has destroyed in him the spiritual savor, and made 
shipwreck of his vocation. 

If, then, you see clearly it is best for you to tread the 
pathway of the counsels, go boldly on without delay or 
hesitation, and if difficulties loom big before you, they 
will fade away at your approach, like the fog before the 
sun; or, if they remain, you will be surprised at the 
ease with which you will vanquish them, for when the 
Lord is with you, who will be against you? You will 
be guarded against possible rashness in choosing the 
higher life by consulting a prudent director or con¬ 
fessor, at least, so far as to get his approval of the 
step you propose to take. For the knowledge such a 
one has of the secrets of your conscience gives him a 
specially favorable opportunity to judge whether you 
have the virtue and determination of character to per¬ 
severe in the pathway of the counsels. 


CHAPTER VIII 


“the world needs me" 

Some young people endeavor to persuade themselves 
that as the world needs good men, they can better serve 
Church and State by remaining in the secular life. The 
world, of course, does need good men and women, and 
it has them, too; but even if there were a dearth of 
good Christian laymen, is that any reason for you to 
refuse God’s invitation and sacrifice your own spiritual 
advancement and happiness in order to help others? 
Our first duty is to ourselves. Are we to be so en¬ 
amored of benefiting others as to forego God’s special 
love, and to rest satisfied with a lower place in heaven ? 
God invites you to Him, and you turn away to devote 
yourselves to others, who perhaps care little for you, 
and will profit less by your example. 

And, moreover, once absorbed in the business and 
cares of life, you may find yourself, like most others, 
so preoccupied in your own personal advancement, 
in providing for yourself and those dependent on you, 
that scarce a thought remains for the interests of your 
neighbor. And thus your initial high resolve may soon 
sink to the low level of beneficent effort you see in 
others. Selfishness, to a large extent, rules in the 
world, and how can you promise yourself that you will 
escape its grasp? He certainly is rash who thinks he 
can, single-handed, contend against the world and its 
spirit. 

No doubt many men and women of the world are 
devout Christians, and in a thousand ways spread 
about them the good odor of Christ. Countless brave 
Christian soldiers, upright statesmen, kings and 
peasants, matrons and maids, are the pride of Chris¬ 
tianity for what they have done and dared in behalf of 
32 


THE WORLD NEEDS ME 


33 


their neighbor. All honor to the virtuous laity 
throughout the world to-day, who by their edifying 
lives, their sacrifices for the faith, their unwearying 
industry, and fidelity to Mother Church, are sanctify¬ 
ing their own souls, and assisting others by example, 
counsel and charitable deed. 

But for every layman that has distinguished himself 
by heroic devotion to the welfare of his neighbor, 
many religious could be mentioned who have done the 
same. We have all heard of Father Damien, who 
banished himself to the isle of Molokai, where the out¬ 
cast lepers of the Sandwich Islands had been herded to 
rot and die ; and there taking up his abode, soon 
changed the lepers, who were living like wild beasts, 
without law or morality, into gentle and fervent Chris¬ 
tians. Having no priest as a companion, he on one 
occasion rowed out to a passing steamer, which was not 
allowed to land, to make his confession to a bishop 
aboard. And while he sat in his row boat, because 
forbidden to climb into the vessel, and shouted his sins 
to the bishop on the deck above, the passengers look¬ 
ing curiously on, he certainly must have been a spec¬ 
tacle to men and angels. And his sacrifice became 
complete when he contracted the leprosy from his peo¬ 
ple, and thus gave up his life for his flock. 

Nor is this a solitary instance of such magnanimity. 
A short time ago, when a Canadian bishop entered a 
convent and called for volunteers to start a lepfcr hos¬ 
pital, every nun stood up to offer her services. You 
have heard of the great Apostle of the Indies, St. 
Francis Xavier, who is said to have baptized more 
than a million pagans. St. Teresa, the mystic, was 
not prevented by her cloister and her ecstacies from 
helping her neighbor, for she founded a large number 
of convents, both for men and women. Blessed Mar¬ 
garet Mary was only a simple nun in the Visitation 
Convent of Paray-le-Monial, yet God chose her to make 
known and spread the great devotion of the Sacred 


34 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


Heart, a devotion which has brought more comfort 
and consolation to sorrowing humanity than the com¬ 
bined philanthropic efforts of a century. God took a- 
gay cavalier, whose only ambition was to wear foppish 
clothes and thrum a guitar, made him into a friar, and 
bade him found the great Franciscan Order, whose 
glorious works for mankind cannot be enumerated. 

And if we ponder the nature of religious life, the 
marvels accomplished by simple religious cease to 
astonish us. One who devotes the major portion of 
his time and attention to a definite object will cer¬ 
tainly attain great results. Now, most religious seek 
their own sanctification in concentrating their energies 
on the welfare of their neighbor, in ever studying, 
working, planning for his betterment. The love of 
God, as shown in charity to others, is the absorbing 
purpose of their life. On the other hand, the man of 
the world must generally care first and foremost for 
himself and family, and only the time he has left, in¬ 
cidentally as it were, can he bestow upon others. 

This point is thus forcibly expressed by St. Paul 
(I Cor. vii: 32-34) : “He who is unmarried is solici¬ 
tous for the things of the Lord, how he may please 
God. But he who is married is solicitous for the things 
of the world, how he may please his wife; and he is 
divided. And the woman, unmarried and a virgin, 
thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be 
holy in body and soul. But she who is married, 
thinketh on the things of the world, how she may 
please her husband.” 

The works of the religious orders are varied and 
numerous. Some care for the outcasts of society, some 
for the sick or the old, the orphan and the homeless; 
others, leaving the comforts and conveniences of 
modern life, cheerfully face the danger and hardships 
of remotest lands to bring the light of the Gospel to 
pagan nations. More than a million Chinese to-day are 
fervent Christians, and to whom do they owe their 


THE WORLD NEEDS ME 


35 


faith under God? To religious missionaries. The 
Benedictines of old spent their lives in the pursuit of 
learning, and in teaching barbarous tribes the art of 
husbandry. The glorious Knights Templar were a 
militant order; and the members of the Order of the 
Blessed Trinity for the redemption of captives, the 
first to wear our national colors of freedom, the red, 
white and blue, sold themselves into slavery for the 
release of others. Scarcely a want or need of the 
human race has not been provided for by some re¬ 
ligious body. 

But probably the most common pursuit of religious 
bodies in our day is teaching. Hundreds of thousands 
of religious men and women, in all lands whence they 
are not banished, spend their lives in the class-room. 
And the reason for this preference is the extraordinary 
demand for schools in every direction. The young 
must be taught, and Holy Mother Church knows only 
too well that religious training must be woven into 
the fibre of secular learning if we would not have a 
conscienceless and irreligious generation. So she is¬ 
sues ner stirring appeal for volunteer teachers, and a 
vast multitude of religious have responded in solid 
phalanx. Some one has said that if all the sisterhoods 
were taken out of our schools in the United States, 
we should soon have to close half our churches. 

Religious, then, are* carrying on vast and important 
works for the benefit of the Church and society. Many 
other services which they render might be mentioned, 
such as preaching and hearing confessions, the publica¬ 
tion of books and periodicals, the cultivation of the 
arts, science, literature and theology. But enough has 
been said to show that they are leading a strenuous 
life, and that boy or maid, who is emulous of heart¬ 
stirring deeds, could scarcely find a more propitious 
field of action than in the religious state. 


CHAPTER IX 


MUST I ACCEPT THE INVITATION ? 

It is not the purpose of the writer to exaggerate, to 
frighten or coerce persons into religious life, by hold¬ 
ing out threats of God’s displeasure to those who re¬ 
fuse, or by citing examples of those whose careers were 
blighted through failure to heed the Divine call. It is 
His desire rather to imitate Christ’s manner of action, 
portraying the beauty and excellence of virtue, and 
then leaving it to the promptings of aspiring hearts to 
follow the leadings of grace. 

Christ, all mildness and meekness as He was, uttered 
terrible denunciations against sin and the false leaders 
of the people; but nowhere do we read that He de¬ 
nounced or threatened those who failed to accept His 
tender and loving call to the life of perfection. To 
draw men’s hearts He used not compulsion, but the 
lure of kindness and affection. 

Our Lord sometimes commanded and sometimes 
counselled and between these there is a difference. 
When a command is given by lawful superiors it must 
be obeyed, and that under penalty. God gave the com¬ 
mandments amidst thunder and lightning on Mount 
Sinai, and those commandments, as precepts of the 
natural law, or because corroborated in the New 
Testament, persist in the main to-day, and any 
one who violates them, refuses to keep them, is 
guilty of disobedience to God, commits a sin. 
But when Christ proclaimed the counsels, He was 
merely giving advice or exhortation, and hence no 
one was obliged to follow them under pain of His 
displeasure. Suppose a mother has two sons, who both 
obey exactly her every command, and one also takes 
her advice in a certain matter, while the other does not; 

36 


MUST I ACCEPT THE INVITATION 


37 


she will love the second not less, but the first more. 
So of two boys, who are both favorites of God, if one 
accept and the other decline a proffered vocation, He 
will love the latter as before, but the former how much 
more tenderly! 

Moreover, God loves the cheerful giver. By doing, 
out of an abundance of charity and fervor, what you 
are not obliged to do, you gain ampler merit for your¬ 
self, since you perform more than your duty, and at the 
same time you give greater glory to God, showing 
that He has willing children, who bound their service 
to Him by no bargaining considerations of weight and 
measure. But if, through fear of threat or punish¬ 
ment, you make an offering to God, your gift loses, to 
an extent, the worth and spontaneity of a heart-token. 

Some think that not to accept the invitation to the 
counsels, is to show disregard and contempt for God’s 
grace and favor, and hence sinful. But how does a 
young person act when he declines this proffered gift? 
He equivalently says, with tears in his eyes, “My 
Saviour, I appreciate deeply Thy invitation to the 
higher life; I envy my companions who are so 
courageous as to follow Thy counsel; but, please be 
not offended with me if I have not the courage to 
imitate their example. I beg Thee to let me serve 
Thee in some other way.” Is there anything of con¬ 
tempt in such a reply? No more than if a child would 
tearfully pray its mother not to send it into a dark 
room to fetch something; and as such a mother, in¬ 
stead of insisting on her request, would only kiss away 
her child’s tears, so will God treat one who weeps be¬ 
cause he cannot muster courage to tread closely in His 
blood-stained footsteps. 

The young have little relish for argumentative quo¬ 
tations and texts, but it may interest them to know that 
Saints Basil, Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, Cyprian, 
Augustine and other Fathers all speak in a similar 
strain, holding that, as a vocation is a free gift or 


38 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


counsel, it may be declined without sin.* The great 
Theologians, St. Thomas, Suarez, Bellarmine and 
Cornelius a Lapide also agree on this point. 

But putting aside the question of sin, we must admit 
that one who clearly realizes that the religious life is 
best for him and consequently more pleasing to God, 
would, by neglecting to avail himself of this grace, 
betray a certain ungenerosity of soul and a lack of 
appreciation of spiritual things, in depriving himself 
of a gift which would be the source of so many graces 
and spiritual advantages. 

Do not, then, dear reader, embrace the higher life 
merely from motives of fear—which were unworthy 
an ingenuous child of God—but rather to please the 
Divine Majesty. You are dear to Him, dearer than 
the treasures of all the world. He loves you so much 
that He died for you, and now He asks you in return 
to nestle close to His heart, where He may ever en¬ 
fold His arms about you, and lavish his blandishments 
upon your soul. Will you come to Him, your fresh 
young heart still sweet with the dew of innocence, and 
become His own forevermore? Will you say farewell 
to creatures, and rest upon that Bosom whose love and 
tenderness for you is high as the stars, wide as the 
universe, and deep as the sea? Come to the tender 
embraces of your heavenly spouse, and heaven will 
have begun for you on earth. 


*The hypothetical case, sometimes mentioned by casuists, of 
one who is convinced that for him salvation outside of re¬ 
ligion is impossible, can here safely be passed over as un¬ 
practical for young readers. 


CHAPTER X 


I AM TOO YOUNG 

Many a young person, when confronted with the 
thought of his vocation, puts it out of mind, with the 
off-hand remark, “Oh, there is plenty of time to con¬ 
sider that; I am too young, and have had no experience 
of the world.” This method of procedure is summary, 
if not judicious, and it meets with the favor of some 
parents, who fear, as they think, to lose their children. 
It was also evidently highly acceptable to Luther, who 
is quoted by Bellarmine as teaching that no one should 
enter religious life until he is seventy or eighty years 
of age. 

In deciding a question of this nature, however, we 
should not allow our prepossessions to bias our judg¬ 
ment, nor take without allowance the opinion of those 
steeped in worldly wisdom, but lacking in spiritual 
insight. Father William Humphrey, S.J., in his edi¬ 
tion of Suarez’s “Religious Life” (page 49), says: 
“Looking merely to natural law, it is lawful at any 
age freely to offer oneself to the perpetual service of 
God. There is no natural principle by which should 
be fixed any certain age for such an act.” 

Christ did not prescribe any age for those who 
wished to enter His special service, and He rebuked 
the apostles for keeping children from Him, saying, 
“Let the little ones come unto Me.” And St. Thomas 
(Summa, 2 a 2®, Qusest. 189, art. 5), quotes approv¬ 
ingly the comment of Origen on this text, viz.: “We 
should be careful lest in our superior wisdom we de¬ 
spise the little ones of the Church and prevent them 
from coming to Jesus.” And speaking in the same 
article of St. Gregory’s statement that the Roman 
nobility offered their sons to St. Benedict to be brought 

39 


40 


WHAT SHALL I BEt 


up in the service of God, the Angelic Doctor approves 
this practice on the principle that “it is good for a man 
to bear the yoke from his youth,” and adds that it is in 
accord with the usual “custom of setting boys to the 
duties and occupations in which they are to spend 
their life.” 

The remark concerning St. Benedict recalls to mind 
the interesting fact that in olden times, not only boys 
of twelve and fourteen became little monks, but that 
children of three, four or five years of age were 
brought in their parents’ arms and dedicated to the 
monasteries. According to the “Benedictine Cen¬ 
turies,” “the reception of a child in those days was 
almost as solemn as a profession in our own. His 
parents carried him to the church. Whilst they 
wrapped his hand, which held the petition, in the 
sacred linen of the altar, they promised, in the presence 
of God and His saints, stability in his name.” These 
children remained during infancy and childhood within 
the monastery enclosure, and on reaching the age of 
fourteen, they were given the choice of returning 
home, if they preferred, or of remaining for life.* 

The discipline of the Church, which as a wise 
Mother, she modifies to suit the exigencies of time and 
place, is somewhat different in our day. The ordinary 
law now prohibits religious profession before the age 
of sixteen; and the earliest age at which subjects are 
commonly admitted is fifteen. Orders which accept 
younger candidates, in order to train and prepare them 
for reception, cannot, as a rule, clothe them with the 
habit. A very recent decree also requires clerical 
students to have completed four years’ study of Latin 
before admission as novices into any order. 

Persons who object to early entrance into religion 
seem to forget that the young have equal rights with 


*It would seem that for the space of two centuries, this 
freedom of choice was not offered them. 



I AM TOO YOUNG 


41 


their elders to personal sanctification, and to the use 
of the means afforded for this purpose by the Church. 
It is now passed into history, how some misguided 
individuals forbade frequent Communion to the faith¬ 
ful at large, and altogether excluded from the Holy 
Table children under twelve or fourteen, and this not¬ 
withstanding the plain teaching of the Council of Trent 
to the contrary. To correct the error, the Holy See 
was obliged to issue decrees on the subject, which may 
be styled the charter of Eucharistic freedom for all the 
faithful, and especially for children. As the Eucharist 
is not intended solely for the mature or aged, so neither 
is religious life meant only for the decrepit, or those 
who have squandered youth and innocence. Its portals 
are open to all the qualified, and particularly to the 
young, who wish to bring not a part of their life only, 
but the whole of it, along with youthful enthusiasm 
and generosity, to God’s service. 

How many young religious have attained heroic 
sanctity which would never have been theirs had re¬ 
ligion been closed against them by an arbitrary or 
unreasonable age restriction! A too rigid attitude on 
this point would have barred those patrons of youth, 
Aloysius, Stanislaus Kostka and Berchmans, from re¬ 
ligion and perhaps even from the honors of the altar. 
St. Thomas, the great theological luminary of the 
Church, was offered to the Benedictines when five 
years old, and he joined the Dominicans at fifteen or 
sixteen; and St. Rose of Lima made a vow of chastity 
at five. The Lily of Quito, Blessed Mary Ann, made 
the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience be¬ 
fore her tenth birthday, and the Little Flower was a 
Carmelite at fifteen. And uncounted others, who 
lived and died in the odor of sanctity, dedicated them¬ 
selves by vow to the perpetual service of God, while 
still in the fragrance and bloom of childhood or youth. 

“What a pity!” some exclaim, when a youth or maid 
enters religion. “How much better for young people 


42 


WHAT SHALL I BET 


to wait a few years and see something of the world, 
so they will know what they are giving up.” This is 
ever the comment of the worldly spirit, which aims to 
crush out entirely spiritual aspirations, and failing in 
that, to delay their fulfilment indefinitely. And yet the 
wise do not reason similarly in other matters. One 
who proposes to cultivate a marked musical talent is 
never advised to try his hand first at carpentering or 
tailoring, that he may make an intelligent choice be¬ 
tween them. Nor is a promising law student counselled 
to spend several years in the study of engineering and 
dentistry, to avoid making a possible mistake. Why 
then wish a youth, of evident religious inclination, to 
mingle in the frivolity and gayeties of the world, with 
the certain risk of imbibing its spirit and losing his 
spiritual relish? “He who loves the danger,” says the 
Scripture, “will perish in it.” 

“Yet a vocation should first be tried, and if it cannot 
resist temptation, it will never prove constant,” is the 
worn but oft-repeated reply. As if a parent would 
expose his boy to contagion to discover whether his 
constitution be strong enough to resist it; or place him 
in the companionship of the depraved to try his virtue 
and see if it be proof against temptation. No, the tender 
sprout must be carefully tended, and shielded from 
wind and storm, until it grows into maturity. In like 
manner, a young person who desires to serve God, 
should be placed in an atmosphere favorable to the 
development of his design, and guarded from sinister 
influence, until he has acquired stability of purpose and 
strength of virtue. 

There was once in Rome an attractive Cardinal’s 
page of fourteen who possessed a sunny and lively dis¬ 
position. On a solemn occasion his hasty temper led 
him to resent the action of another page, and straight¬ 
way there was a fight. Immediately the decorous 
retinue was thrown into confusion, and the Cardinal 
felt himself disgraced. Peter Ribadeneira, for this was 


/ AM TOO YOUNG 


43 


the page’s name, did not wait for developments, he 
foresaw what was coming and fled. Not knowing 
where to go, he bethought himself of one who was 
everybody’s friend, Ignatius of Loyola, and with soiled 
face, torn lace and drooping plume, he presented him¬ 
self before him. Ignatius received him with open 
arms, and placed him among the novices. Poor Peter 
had a hard time in the novitiate, as his caprices and 
boisterousness were always bringing him into trouble. 
But when grave Fathers frowned, and the novices were 
scandalized, Peter was ever sure of sympathy and for¬ 
giveness from Ignatius, who, in the end, was gratified 
to see the boy develop into an able, learned and holy 
religious. Peter’s vocation was occasioned by his fight, 
certainly an unpropitious beginning, but he must have 
ever been grateful that, when he applied to Ignatius, 
he was not turned away until he had become older and 
more sedate. 

Parents or spiritual directors, who, under the pretext 
of trying a vocation, put off for two or three years an 
aspirant who seems dowered with all necessary quali¬ 
ties, can scarcely justify themselves in the eyes of 
God, such a method being calculated to destroy, not 
prove, a vocation. To detain for a few months, how¬ 
ever, one who conceives a sudden notion to enter re¬ 
ligion, for the purpose of discovering whether his in¬ 
tention is serious, and not merely a passing whim, is 
only in accordance with the ordinary rules of prudence. 
In connection with this point, the words of bluff and 
hearty St. Jerome, who never seemed to grow old.or 
lose the buoyancy of youth, are often quoted. Giving 
advice to one whom he wished to quit the world, he 
wrote, “Wait not even to untie the rope that holds 
your boat at anchor—cut it.” (M. P. L., t. 26, c. 549.) 
And Christ’s replv to the young man, whom He had 
invited to follow Him, and who asked leave to go first 
and bury his father, was equally terse: “Let the dead 
bury their own dead.” (Luke ix: 60.) 


44 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


In a booklet entitled “Questions on Vocations,” pub¬ 
lished in 1913, by a Priest of the Congregation of the 
Mission, the question is asked, “Do not a larger per¬ 
centage persevere when subjects enter the religious 
state late in life?” And the answer is given: “No; 
the records of five of the largest communities of Sis¬ 
ters in the United States show that a much larger per¬ 
centage of subjects persevere among those who enter 
between the ages of sixteen and twenty, than among 
those who enter when they are older. When persons 
are twenty years of age, or older, their characters are 
more set; their minds are less pliable; it is harder to 
unbend and remould them. The young are more 
readily formed to religious discipline.” 

In concluding this chapter on the appropriate age 
for entrance into religious life, it may be said that, 
after reaching the prescribed age of fifteen, the sooner 
an otherwise properly qualified person enters the 
nearer he seems to approach the ideals and traditionary 
practice of the Church, and the better he will provide 
for his own spiritual welfare. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE PRIESTHOOD 

The High Priest of the New Law, St. Paul tells the 
Hebrews, is Christ. And the Christian priesthood, 
which He instituted, is a participation and extension 
of His office and ministry. The commemoration of the 
same sacrifice which was once offered upon the cross 
for the sins of the world is daily renewed on our 
altars from the rising to the setting of the sun. The 
Christian priest, in the language of spiritual writers, 
is “another Christ,” taking His place amongst men, 
perpetually renewing, as it were, the Incarnation in 
the Sacrifice of the Mass, preaching the word, and 
applying the fruits of Redemption through the chan¬ 
nels of the sacraments. 

In common estimation, the dignity of a man is 
reckoned by the character of the office he fills or the 
duties entrusted to him. Judged by this standard, no 
worldly dignity can compare with that of the priest¬ 
hood, whose authority comes from God, and whose 
powers, transcending earth, reach back to heaven. 
“Speak not of the royal purple,” says St. Chrysostom, 
“of diadems, of golden vestures—these are but 
shadows, frailer than the flowers of spring, compared 
to the power and privileges of the priesthood.” 

And whence arises, we may ask, this incomparable 
dignity of the priest? First of all, from his power to 
roll back the heavens, and bring down upon the altar 
the Majesty of the Deity, attended by an angelic train. 
“The Blessed Virgin,” St. Vincent Ferrer informs us, 
“opened heaven only once, the priest does so at every 
Mass.” Exalted is the sovereignty of kings who rule 
a nation, but more sublime the power which commands 
the King of kings, and is obeyed. Who could con- 

45 


46 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


ceive, did not Faith teach it, that mortal man were 
capable of elevation to such a pitch of glory? No 
wonder St. Chrysostom was betrayed by this thought 
into the rhapsody: “When you behold the Lord im¬ 
molated and lying on the altar, and the priest standing 
over the sacrifice and praying and all the people em¬ 
purpled by that precious blood, do you imagine that 
you are still on earth amongst men and not rather rapt 
up to heaven?” 

The second great prerogative of the priest is to 
forgive sins. Christ having one day said to a paralytic, 
“Man, thy sins are forgiven thee” (Luke v: 20), some 
of the bystanders marvelled, thinking within them¬ 
selves, “Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” Yea, 
truly is this a Divine power, but these critics failed to 
comprehend the Divinity of Christ, and that all power 
was given to Him in heaven and on earth. And His 
power to remit sins has descended to the priest, in 
the imposition of hands. At Christ’s will lepers were 
cleansed, and once more felt the pulsation of health 
tingling through their veins; but more wondrous still 
the word of the priest which causes the scales of the 
leprosy of sin to fall from the stricken soul, and re¬ 
stores to it the pristine vigor and beauty of sanctifying 
grace. As keeper of the keys, the priest stands warder 
of heaven, locking or unlocking its doors to the dust- 
begrimed pilgrims of earth. 

Sublime, then, is the priestly dignity, even beyond 
human comprehension. But one thing we realize, 
and the saints with clearer vision perceive, that high 
virtue is demanded of him whose life is spent in the 
antechamber of heaven. St. Catharine of Sienna, in a 
lett°r to one newly ordained, tells him, “The ministers 
whom the Sovereign Goodness has chosen to be His 
Christs ought to be angels, not men . . . they in 

truth discharge the office of angels.” “What purity,” 
says a Father of the Church, “what piety shall we re¬ 
quire of a priest? Think what those hands ought to be 


THE PRIESTHOOD 


47 


which perform such a ministry; what that tongue 
which pronounces those words.” No sanctity or purity 
of soul, then, is beyond the aspirations of one whose 
heaven-born privilege it is to enter the Holy of Holies, 
to dispense the mysteries of faith, and exercise the 
“ministry of reconciliation.” 

A most important function of the ministry is the 
care of souls. Christ’s mission was to save; He was 
the Good Shepherd, who traveled about preaching to 
the people, who were like “sheep without a shepherd.” 
And to His Apostles and their successors He gave the 
solemn charge “to feed His lambs.” And this in¬ 
junction of the Divine Master has been held sacred 
by the Church throughout its existence. Wherever 
in the world to-day dwell true believers, there are to 
be found priests to care for them. 

The priest is truly the father of the people com¬ 
mitted to him. He must become all things to all men, 
rejoicing with the joyful, and weeping with the sor¬ 
rowful. The infants he must receive into the Church, 
generating in them the life of grace, guarding them as 
they grow up, and instructing them in doctrine and 
discipline. To him the bridal couple come for the 
nuptial benediction; and when sickness and trouble 
and want invade the household it is to their father in 
Christ the faithful look for support and encourage¬ 
ment. He is the consoler of all, and he bears the bur¬ 
dens of all. And when the angel of death hovers over 
his charge, the priest repairs to the bedside of the de¬ 
parting one, to strengthen him for the last journey; 
and, finally, when the soul has departed, he commits the 
body to hallowed ground, there to await the resur¬ 
rection. 

The priest, then, must be of heroic mould to satisfy 
the demands made upon him; he must be ready to 
endure hunger and cold and weariness, contradictions 
from within and without, labors by night and day. 
But the Lord is his inheritance, and for His sake he 


48 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


is willing to endure all the crosses and trials that bear 
upon him. How splendidly the clergy of our country 
have responded to their responsibilities is attested by 
the flourishing state of religion, by the magnificent 
churches, the well-developed Catholic school system, 
and the numerous other Church activities about us. 
Every thoroughly organized parish or mission means 
the life of at least one priest sacrificed in its formation 
—the commingling of his sweat and labors with the 
cement that binds together its material and spiritual 
stones. But could a life be better spent? What more 
fitting monument could be left to posterity than a 
spiritual structure built on Christ and enduring as the 
foundation on which it rests? 

Who, then, may aspire to the glorious career 
of the priesthood? Is it open to all, or must one await 
the striking manifestation of the Divine Will inviting 
him to it? Should he not say, “The priesthood is too 
exalted for my weakness and unworthiness”? While 
humility is laudable, it should not bar any one who has 
the requisite virtue and talent, together with an upright 
intention, from entering this high estate. Everything 
depends on one’s qualifications and motives. Others 
will pass judgment on the qualifications, but each one 
must scrutinize his own motives. If a youth desires 
the priesthood for natural reasons, to lead an easy life 
or one honorable in the eyes of men, to attain fame or 
station, his motives are wrong, or at least, too im¬ 
perfect to carry him far on the rugged road before 
him. But if he be swayed by supernatural desires, 
such as the service of God, his own sanctification or 
the help of his neighbor, his ambition is praiseworthy. 
One who is conscious, then, of rectitude of purpose 
and hopeful with the divine assistance of living up to 
its obligations, may aspire, without scruple, to the 
priesthood, the highest of dignities and the greatest of 
careers open to man. 

One day our Lord, instructing His disciples before 


THE PRIESTHOOD 


49 


sending them to preach His coming, said: “The har¬ 
vest, indeed, is great, but the laborers are few. Pray 
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send 
laborers into his harvest” (Luke x: 2). And this has 
been the cry through all the ages—“Send laborers into 
the harvest!” The Church has always needed good 
spiritual laborers, men and women, who would be 
willing to work for God and their neighbor, to extend 
the Kingdom of God, and this is true to-day of our own 
beloved country. A host of spiritual laborers is scat¬ 
tered over our land, but the cry is ever repeated, “We 
need more, the work is too great for our efforts, and 
all the harvest is not being garnered.” 

Will you, dear reader, make one more worker in 
God’s field, one more reaper of His harvest that is 
ripe and falling to the ground because there are none 
to gather it? 


CHAPTER XII 


THE TEACHER'S AUREOLE 

As the acquaintance of young people with religious 
is frequently limited to their teachers, they are some¬ 
times inclined to identify in their minds the profession 
of teaching with religious life. And since some feel a 
diffidence or repugnance in committing themselves to a 
teaching career, they extend this aversion to the re¬ 
ligious state itself. We have shown, however, in a 
previous chapter that there is great variety and diver¬ 
sity of occupation in religious orders, so that all tastes 
and inclinations can find congenial exercise in them. 

Still, it is probably true, that the great majority of 
religious men and women are found in the class-room, 
and this for the good and sufficient reason that Chris¬ 
tian education is the paramount need of the day, and 
the work on which the future of the Church chiefly 
depends. The young who, perhaps, are tempted to 
look upon teaching as an obscure employment and a 
monotonous grind, will do well to reflect that in our 
time it is considered so honorable a profession that 
hundreds of thousands, even of those outside the 
Church, deliberately choose it as the best and most 
favorable career for the play of their talents. 

The professors of our noted universities command 
the respect and deference of the community, and to 
them the public look for the solution of the constantly 
arising civic and social problems. They are regarded 
as the natural leaders of thought, and are expected to 
guide and direct popular movements affecting the well¬ 
being of society. And this public esteem is extended 
in due proportion to all who are engaged in education, 
for it is universally realized that the standard of 
morality and intelligence, which is to obtain in the 
50 


THE TEACHER’S AUREOLE 


51 


commonwealth, will depend largely on the training 
given to the young. The teacher is directly employed 
in the making of good citizens, which is a more im¬ 
portant business than the extension of manufactures 
or commerce. He is setting the ideals according to 
which the Republic must stand or fall. 

And, for persons of refined ’or intellectual tastes, 
the instruction of youth must be a pleasurable em¬ 
ployment. It is inviting to deal with the young and 
innocent, who are eager to learn, ambitious to excel, 
and who in return for their instructor’s solicitude, give 
him unstinted affection and gratitude, and render him 
loyal obedience and respect. In the teacher’s hands is 
the moulding and shaping of character, the direction 
of talents which may illumine society. And can any 
sphere of action be more elevated, more grateful than 
this? 

And then, too, the educator is constantly engaged in 
the things of the mind, in study, and the discovery of 
new truths or new applications of old ones, and in im¬ 
parting his knowledge to fresh, bright intelligences. 
Nothing is so fascinating to a person of intellectual 
bent as the pursuit and attainment of truth, and this 
is the steady occupation of the teacher. Is not the 
outlook of such a life infinitely wider and more re¬ 
freshing than the dull routine of business, the noisy 
rumble of a factory or the sordid dealings of com¬ 
merce ? 

But it is principally from the spiritual point of view 
that education is considered by the Church and re¬ 
ligious congregations. The mandate of Christ, “Go ye 
forth and teach all nations,” laid the charge of teach¬ 
ing upon His Church; and on the pastors it devolves 
to see that the faithful are instructed in Christian doc¬ 
trines and obligations. To rightfully carry out its 
mission, the Church has always felt obliged to insist 
that the education of its children be permeated with 
religion, and in fulfilment of this duty it has estab- 


52 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


lished parochial schools throughout our country, where 
the young, while acquiring secular science, can at the 
same time be grounded in the faith and trained to 
virtuous lives. 

It can be said, then, that the religious who conduct 
these schools share in the apostolic mission of the 
Church. Every catechetical instruction, every word of 
exhortation or encouragement to right living and do¬ 
ing which is given in the class-room, is a participation 
by the teacher in the pastorate of souls, in the an¬ 
nouncing and preaching of the Gospel, in the spreading 
of the Kingdom of God. Without the aid of the 
school, the pastor ordinarily could not properly teach 
the young their prayers and catechism, prepare them 
for the sacraments, and equip them for the manifold 
exigencies of life. 

“Religious education is our most distinctive work,” 
says Archbishop Spalding, of Peoria. “It gives us a 
place apart in the life of the country. It is indis¬ 
pensable to the welfare and progress of the Church in 
the United States, and will be recognized in the end as 
the most vital contribution to American civilization. 
Fortunate are they, who by words or deeds confirm 
our faith in the need of Catholic schools; and yet more 
fortunate are they who, while they inspire our teachers 
with new courage and zeal, awaken in the young, to 
whom God has given a heart and a mind, an efficacious 
desire to devote themselves to the little ones whom 
Christ loves. What better work, in the present time, 
can any of us do than foster vocations to our Brother¬ 
hoods and Sisterhoods, whose special mission is 
teaching?” 

And Brother Azarias assures us that “There is not 
in this world among human callings a more sacred one 
than that of moulding souls to higher and better 
things.” 

Bishop Byrne, of Nashville, has well said: “The 
office of teaching has an advantage in some respects 


THE TEACHER’S AUREOLE 


53 


over the priesthood. The teachers are constantly with 
their pupils, shaping their souls, coloring them, in¬ 
forming them, making them instinct with life and 
motives, and giving them high ideals and worthy 
aspirations. In all this their work is akin to that of 
the confessor.” 

The need of more teaching Brothers and Sisters is 
particularly urgent and pressing, as the number of 
pupils is increasing proportionately faster than the 
number of religious subjects, and the dearth of 
teachers prevents the opening of new schools in many 
places where they are demanded, and also hinders the 
development of the existing schools. This is the 
opinion of Bishop Alerding, who wrote: “The Church 
is being hampered in her work of educating her youth 
because the number of teachers, Brothers and Sisters, 
is inadequate.” And Bishop McQuaid did not hesitate 
to say that, “the most pressing want of the Church in 
America at the present time is that of Brothers to 
assist in teaching our boys.” 

In this connection we may observe that some virtu¬ 
ous and self-effacing souls, after the example of St. 
Francis of Assisi, have a dread of assuming the re¬ 
sponsibilities of the priesthood, and there are many 
others "who are debarred from aspiring to that dignity 
by insufficiency of education. Young men of either of 
these classes have a splendid opportunity before them 
to serve God by joining a teaching congregation of 
Brothers. 

Finally, as an encouragement to Christian teachers 
in their glorious apostolate, let them remember the 
great reward awaiting their unselfish labors. The 
Book of Daniel (xii: 3), tells us that “They who in¬ 
struct many to justice shall shine as stars for all 
eternity.” The inspired writer compares teachers to 
the stars of heaven, for as the latter illumine the dark¬ 
ness of night, so they who instruct others dispel the 
darkness of ignorance by shedding the rays of wisdom 


54 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


and knowledge into the minds of their disciples. But 
there is a deeper meaning in this text, for according 
to the interpretation of theologians, it contains the as¬ 
surance to those who teach others their duty, of a 
special reward or golden crown in heaven, called the 
Doctor’s or Teacher’s Aureole. The exact nature of 
this privilege, whether it is a special gift of loving God 
or a distinctive garb of glory, we do not know, but as 
the martyrs and virgins have their special aureole, so 
will teachers have theirs. 

Father Croiset exclaims: “Oh! the beautiful and 
rich crowns which God prepares for a religious who 
inspires little children with a horror of vice and a love 
of virtue! . . . What sweet consolation will be 

experienced at the moment of death by the religious 
when he beholds coming to his aid those souls whom 
he has helped to save.” And we may faintly conceive 
the transport of one who enters heaven accompanied 
by the resplendent retinue of those whom he has 
brought with him from earth. 

This chapter would not be complete without a word 
of encouragement to those young men and women 
whose education is so deficient that they feel incom¬ 
petent to teach, and so turn away in sadness from the 
portals of religion, thinking there is no room for them 
within. Such persons should know that any one who is 
skilled in a trade, such as that of carpentering, paint¬ 
ing, tailoring, or sewing, can be of the greatest utility 
and acceptability to a community. And there are 
many offices of a domestic nature, such as that of 
porter, sacristan, refectorian and steward, which re¬ 
quire little preparatory training and can be filled by 
any one of intelligence and good will. 

Nor should persons engaged in such duties enter¬ 
tain the notion that they will not share in the full 
spiritual privileges of the Order; for by the assistance 
they give to the other members they are contributing 
to the end and aim of the Institute and communicate 


THE TEACHER’S AUREOLE 


55 


in all the good works performed by it. An edifying 
incident, illustrative of this point, is told of a famous 
preacher who moved hearts in a wondrous fashion, 
and when he was tempted to self-complacency in his 
success, it was revealed to him that the results of his 
preaching were due, not to his own eloquence or zeal, 
but to the prayers of the unobserved lay-brother, who 
always sat at the foot of the pulpit, telling his beads 
for the efficacy of the sermon. 


CHAPTER XIII 


SHOWING THE WAY 

When young people read or hear of persons enter¬ 
ing religious life, they are apt to say, “Oh, it is easy 
for them, because they are holy; but it is impossible 
for me who have so little virtue!” But, as a matter of 
fact, these religious have the same passions and 
temptations to overcome, the same flesh and blood, as 
ourselves, and it was only by conquering themselves, 
and struggling with their lower inclinations, that they 
obtained the victory. 

A boy was standing one day at a country railway 
station in the United States, when he met an older boy 
with whom he engaged in conversation. His casual 
acquaintance confided to him that he was going off to 
college to prepare for entrance into a certain religious 
Order; and he urged the younger lad to accompany 
him for the same purpose. But the latter replied, “Oh ! 
they wouldn’t have me, for I am poor, uneducated and 
every way unfit.” The other insisted, however, and 
finally prevailed on him to board with him the incom¬ 
ing train. They repaired to the superior of the re¬ 
ligious Order, who received them kindly, and sent them 
both to a boarding school. After a short time the 
senior student was caught stealing, and dismissed from 
the college. His whilom companion, however, perse¬ 
vered in his good design, achieved honors in his studies, 
and finally becoming a religious and a priest, he is to¬ 
day doing effective work in the vineyard of the Lord. 

A story is told of a religious who gave a letter to 
a young man, in which he recommended him as a suit¬ 
able candidate for his Order, bidding him present the 
letter to the superior, who lived at a distance. The 
young man, desirous of joining the Order, started on 
56 


SHOWING THE WAY 


57 


his journey with a companion named Mathias, who had 
no notion of becoming a religious. On the way, the 
would-be religious changed his mind, and abandoning 
his project, gave the letter to Mathias, who was 
ignorant of its contents, requesting him to bring it to 
the superior. The superior read the letter, and think¬ 
ing the recommendation referred to Mathias, said to 
him, “Very well, you may go to the novitiate, and put 
on the habit.’' Mathias wondered, but obeyed, en¬ 
tered the novitiate, and became a holy religious. 

St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, and the foremost 
man of his age, was so handsome and attractive in 
youth, that the evil-minded laid snares against his 
chastity. To escape their wiles he determined to enter 
the Cistercian monastery of Citeaux. His father and 
brothers endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose, 
but instead, by his fervid exhortations, he induced four 
of his brothers and others, to the number of thirty, to 
enter with him. As the party was leaving home, little 
Nivard, the sole remaining boy of the family, was at 
play with some companions. Guido, the eldest of the 
brothers, embraced him and said, “My dear Nivard, we 
are going, and this castle and lands will all be yours.” 
The child, “with wisdom beyond his years,” the chron¬ 
icler tells us, “replied, ‘what, are you taking heaven 
for yourselves, and leaving earth to me? The division 
is not fair.’ ” And from that day nothing could pacify 
the boy, until he was permitted to join his brothers. 

St. Alphonsus Liguori, who is said to have always 
preserved his baptismal innocence, was so brilliant a 
student that at the age of sixteen he had obtained two 
degrees in the University of Naples. Entering on the 
practice of the law, he one day in a trial before the 
court, by an oversight, misstated the evidence. His at¬ 
tention being called to his error, he was so over¬ 
whelmed with shame and confusion at his apparent 
lack of truthfulness, that on returning home he ex¬ 
claimed, “World, I know you now, Courts, you shall 


58 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


never see me more/' And for three days he refused 
food. He then determined to become a priest, and in 
the ministry he attained great sanctity. He founded 
the well-known Congregation of the Most Holy Re¬ 
deemer, commonly called the Redemptorists; and for 
his voluminous doctrinal writings, Pius IX declared 
him a Doctor of the universal Church. 

The story of the entrance of St. Stanislaus Kostka 
into religion reads like a romance. His father, a 
Polish nobleman, had placed him and his older brother, 
Paul, at the Jesuit College in Vienna. When Stanislaus 
was fifteen years of age he applied for admission into 
the Jesuit Order, but as he had not the consent of his 
father, the superior feared to take him. An illness 
supervened, and the Blessed Virgin came to cure him, 
and giving the child Jesus into his arms, said to him, 
“You must end your days in the Society that bears my 
Son’s name; you must become a Jesuit.” 

Notwithstanding the vision, poor Stanislaus was 
again refused by the Jesuit superior. Not knowing what 
other step to take, he thought that by traveling four 
hundred miles to Augsburg, in Germany, the Jesuit 
Provincial of that province, who at the time was 
Blessed Peter Canisius, might receive him, for his 
jurisdiction seemed beyond the influence of Senator 
Kostka. If again rejected in Augsburg, he was de¬ 
termined to walk eight hundred miles farther to Rome, 
where he felt sure of securing his heart’s desire. Ac¬ 
cordingly, one August morning he rose early and tell¬ 
ing his servant that he was going out, bade him at the 
same time inform his brother Paul not to expect him 
for dinner. With light and joyous heart he started on 
his journey, and at the first opportunity exchanged his 
fine clothes for the disguise of a pilgrim’s staff and 
tunic. 

When Paul awoke and learned that Stanislaus was 
gone for the day, he was surprised, but attributed it to 
some new pious freak. But as the day wore on, and 


SHOWING THE WAY 


59 


the shades of evening gathered, with no tidings of his 
brother, consternation seized Paul, for he realized that 
his irascible and powerful father would hold him re¬ 
sponsible for the safety of the younger boy, whom he 
loved with a passionate and unbounded affection. Ac¬ 
cordingly servants were dispatched in every direction 
to seek for the truant, but no tidings could be obtained. 
The conclusion gradually forced itself upon all that 
Stanislaus had fled, and Paul determined to pursue him 
and bring him back. For some reason, suspicion was 
aroused that the runaway had taken the road to Augs¬ 
burg, and a carriage with two stout horses was or¬ 
dered for early dawn on the morrow. 

Along the highway to Augsburg flew the equipage 
containing Paul and three companions. Meanwhile, 
little Stanislaus was trudging bravely along, putting all 
his confidence in God, when he suddenly heard the 
rapid beat of horses’ hoofs behind him. Suspecting 
what it meant, he quickly entered a by-lane, and the 
occupants of the carriage rushed by without seeing, 
or at least, recognizing, him in his disguise. 

Stanislaus continued his pilgrimage in peace, beg¬ 
ging his way, for he had no money, and after two 
weeks, he saw, with inexpressible joy, the roofs and 
spires of Augsburg gleaming in the setting sun. At 
last he had reached the haven of rest, and with a 
bounding heart, the weary boy knocked at the door of 
the Jesuit college. But alas, for all his hopes! the 
provincial had gone to Dillingen. The Fathers urged 
him to stay and rest with them until the provincial’s 
return, but Stanislaus would brook no delay. At once 
he wended his way toward Dillingen, which he soon 
reached, and when he knelt at the feet of Blessed 
Canisius, two saints were face to face. The superior 
pressed the boy to his heart, and kept him in the col¬ 
lege for a few weeks. But as both the elder and 
younger saint thought Germany still too near the in¬ 
fluence of his father for safety, Stanislaus, in com- 


60 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


pany with two religious, set out on a further exhaust¬ 
ing walk of eight hundred miles to Rome, where he 
was received as a Jesuit novice by the General of the 
Order, St. Francis Borgia. 

The angelic boy had at last finished his long pil¬ 
grimages, he had entered the earthly paradise for 
which he had yearned, and for which he had forsaken 
home, rank and country. But the happiness of re¬ 
ligion he soon exchanged for the joys of heaven, for 
before completing his eighteenth year, and while still a 
novice, he closed his eyes on this world to open them in 
company with Mary and the angels on the Beatific 
Vision. 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE PARENTS' PART 

The home is the nursery of vocations. Most re¬ 
ligious can trace the beginnings of their resolve to 
leave all to the influence of saintly parents and a Chris¬ 
tian home. If the parents cultivate faith, charity and 
industry the fragrance of these virtues will cling 
round the walls of their dwelling, and perfume the 
lives of their children. 

Every Christian home should be a convent in minia¬ 
ture, filled with the same spirit, productive of the same 
virtues. It should be a cloister, forbidding entrance 
to the world and its vanities, and harboring within 
gentle peace and happiness. Poverty should dwell 
there, not in the narrower meaning of distress and 
want, but in the wider acceptation of simplicity, fru¬ 
gality and temperance as opposed to extravagance, dis¬ 
play and ostentation. Purity, too, should reign as 
queen of the hearth, regulating the glance of the eye, 
the conversation, and even the thoughts of the oc¬ 
cupants. And union and harmony of wills, without 
which the idea of home is inconceivable, can come only 
through obedience which binds the children to parents, 
wife to husband, and all to God. 

But, unfortunately, this is not always the case. 
From many domiciles peace and tranquillity have fled, 
giving place to frivolity, vanity and worldliness and 
all their attendant train of vices. How many parents, 
deceived by the wisdom of the flesh, seek their own 
gratification in all things, and denying their children 
nothing that luxury or extravagance craves, pamper 
and spoil them by indulging their every whim.. .To 
train up the young to the steady and uncompromising 
fulfilment of duty is the only means to produce a 

61 


62 


WHAT SHALL I BET 


hardy and sturdy generation of men and women, whose 
fidelity can be relied on in the trials and emergencies 
of after-life. 

But some fathers and mothers, when their children 
call for bread, reverse the parable by giving them a 
stone, and when they ask for an egg, give them a 
scorpion. We can imagine with what righteous in¬ 
dignation Our Lord would have denounced such a 
mode of action. Foolish parents even of limited 
means dress their girls in expensive and gaudy ap¬ 
parel, which not only offends against taste and 
economy, but sometimes transgresses the laws of 
modesty and decency. Familiarity between the sexes 
is permitted and encouraged by doting and foolish 
mothers, who introduce their sons and daughters to 
juvenile society functions, receptions, parties and un¬ 
becoming dances; so that children who should be at 
their lessons or playing healthful games with suitable 
companions, are taught to affect society manners after 
the most approved fashion of their silly elders. Per¬ 
sons of this stamp may prepare for a rude awakening, 
for the day of reckoning for themselves and children 
will be sure and terrible. 

Many parents, while indeed quite solicitous accord¬ 
ing to their lights, for the temporal good of their off¬ 
spring, training them to a trade or profession, or set¬ 
tling them in marriage, devote but little thought to 
their spiritual welfare. They dread a vocation in their 
family as a catastrophe. It would be well, indeed, for 
persons of this character to ponder the words of the 
Pastoral Letter of the Second Council of Baltimore: 
“We fear that the fault lies in great part with many 
parents, who instead of fostering the desire so natural 
to the youthful heart, of dedicating itself to the service 
of God’s sanctuary, but too often impart to their 
children their own worldly-mindedness, and seek to 
influence their choice of a state of life by unduly ex¬ 
aggerating the difficulties and dangers of the priestly 


THE PARENTS’ PART 


63 


calling, and painting in too glowing colors the ad¬ 
vantages of a secular life.” 

How much better it were for parents to propose to 
the young the promise of Our Lord, “And every one 
that hath left house, or brothers or sisters or father or 
mother or wife or children or lands for my name, shall 
receive a hundredfold, and possess life everlasting.” 
(Matt, xix: 29.) Many a one, whose wayward child 
has brought dishonor and shame to the family, realizes 
when all too late the happiness that might have been 
his had such a child only elected the religious state. 

Instead of throwing obstacles in the way of a voca¬ 
tion, those who are appreciative of spiritual things 
feel honored that God has chosen one of their family 
circle for His special service. Persons whose sons ob¬ 
tain high position in the army, court or government 
employ, take a just pride in the distinction thus at¬ 
tained, but such temporal honors cannot be compared 
with the singular privilege of serving in God’s own 
courts, and dwelling within His sanctuary. Bishop 
Schrembs, of Toledo, aptly advises pastors “to teach 
young parents that the service of God is even more 
glorious than that of country, for as St. Jerome says, 
‘Such a service establishes ties of relationship between 
the family and Jesus Christ Himself/ ” 

Nor do parents, as they sometimes fear, lose a son 
or daughter who enters religion. One who marries 
is in a certain sense lost to the parent, for the re¬ 
sponsibilities of his new state of life so absorb his 
energies as to leave him but little opportunity to con- 
cern himself about his old home. And frequently dis¬ 
tance entirely severs his connection with it. But one 
who enters God’s house does not contract new family 
alliances, his heart remains free, and though separated 
from parents, his affection is always true to them, he 
thinks of them as in his childhood days, and he never 
ceases to importune the blessings of heaven upon them. 

In fact, we may say that a vocation is not strictly an 


64 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


individual, but rather a family possession. A call to 
God implies sacrifice on the part of the family, as well 
as of the individual, for while he gives up parents, 
brothers and sisters, they, too, must part with him. 
And as they share in the renunciation, they participate 
also in its merit and reward. In God’s household the 
religious represents his family, he works and prays by 
proxy for them, and they share in his graces and good 
deeds. Is it not a matter of daily experience that the 
family of a religious, particularly the parents, receive 
abundant graces, that God leads them in various ways 
to greater fidelity in His service, to a love of prayer 
and higher perfection? Parents of religious fre¬ 
quently become religious themselves at heart, and 
though not clothed with the habit, they share in the 
“hundredfold” promised to the child. 

“It is the glory of a large and happy Catholic family 
to produce a vocation,” says Rev. Joseph Rickaby, S.J. 
“A sound Catholic is glad to have brother or sister, 
uncle or aunt, or cousin or child, ‘who has pleased God 
and is found no more’ in the ordinary walks of life, 
because God hath taken and translated him to some¬ 
thing higher and better.” 

Parents and teachers, then, who do not hesitate to 
incline the minds of children to a professional career, 
should have no fear also to direct their thoughts to 
higher things. To praise in the family circle the 
priestly or religious life, to express the hope and de¬ 
sire that one or more of the children may have the 
great happiness of such a profession, to offer them 
daily in prayer to God, to train them to piety and 
devotion, these are all praiseworthy in a father or 
mother, and if faithfully practiced in all families would 
doubtless greatly increase the number of God’s chosen 
servants. 

Anything approaching coercion or excessive urging 
should, of course, be avoided, because moral violence 
should not be done to the child’s will. But the remark 


THE PARENTS’ PART 


65 


sometimes made by well-meaning mothers, “O, I would 
not say a word to influence my child towards religion, 
for fear of interfering with God’s work,” shows a 
lamentable ignorance of the nature of a vocation. One 
might almost as well say, “O, I am careful not to con¬ 
tribute to the building of a church, because if God 
wants it built, He will not need any help.” If all 
persons thought thus, such a church would be long in 
building. 

Most of God’s works require our cooperation. He 
designs them and we must carry them out. Many a 
great project has depended on a timely word, or on the 
exertions of some man who rose to the occasion. An¬ 
drew and John were sent to Our Lord by St. John the 
Baptist, and they became apostles; and if Andrew had 
not “found his brother Simon and brought him to 
Jesus,” who knows whether Christ would not have 
found it necessary to appoint another head of the 
Church in place of Simon Peter? 

To parents, then, belongs the singular privilege of 
training their children to tender piety, of directing 
their thoughts to spiritual things; and fidelity to this 
trust will give us a glorious generation of men and 
women ready to risk all, to sacrifice all in the service 
of their Creator. 


CHAPTER XV 


A PARTING WORD 

Now, dear reader, that you and the writer have kept 
company thus far, he is reluctant to part from you. 
But if you perceive within you the germ of a vocation, 
he begs you not to crush it. If in your heart there is 
a spark of that celestial fire, which may be fanned to a 
consuming flame of divine love, keep it burning. 

Preserve your soul, oh! so perfectly from the 
slightest touch of evil, remembering that the least 
deliberate venial sin stains it more than we can com¬ 
prehend. Above all, cherish holy purity; that exquisite 
ornament of youth, which, like a polished gem, may so 
easily lose its lustre. Guard the avenues of your soul, 
your sight and hearing and the other senses, through 
which contamination from without is always seeking to 
enter and defile the beauty of God’s handiwork. About 
us is an atmosphere of worldliness, which we imper¬ 
ceptibly breathe in from the words of companions, from 
the printed page, and the example of the careless. 
Shun companionship with the frivolous, vanity of 
dress, and that indiscriminate reading which only feeds 
an idle curiosity. The theatres of our day are especi¬ 
ally dangerous to virtue, and he who stays away from 
them entirely, will consult his own advantage, as well 
as please God. 

In this soft and luxurious age the popular trend is 
to self-gratification in all its forms. But the true 
Christian must ever strive against corrupt nature, if 
he would not be carried away by the stream of 
voluptuousness. Self-denial is the watchword of 
Christianity. All are called to the practice of penance 
in some shape or form, the best usually being the exact 
performance of duty. The young of school age will find 
66 


A PARTING WORD 


67 


a strong shelter from temptation in the scrupulous and 
enthusiastic performance of their daily tasks and les¬ 
sons. That small boy had caught the true spirit, who 
used to rise early, to prepare himself, as he said, for 
the “missionary” life, to which he aspired. 

A material help for boys to prepare for future life, 
is to serve at the altar. He who sacrifices his morning 
sleep, overcoming sloth, to minister to the priest at 
Mass, is already, by a privilege, fulfilling the functions 
of one of the minor orders, that of the acolyte. The 
devout server at Mass shares in its graces next to the 
celebrant, and more than the ordinary faithful who 
assist at it; and many an altar-boy, as he glided about 
the sanctuary, mingling with the invisible angels who 
hovered around the Victim of sacrifice, has felt the 
seeds of vocation sprouting in his soul. 

Devotion to the Mother of God should also be a char¬ 
acteristic of youth. She sympathizes with us, as only 
a mother can, in all our difficulties and trials. She 
fully appreciates what we have to contend with, she 
sees our weakness, the strength of our passions, the 
temptations we encounter, and she is eager to throw 
about us the mantle of her protection, if we will only 
ask her. Never a day should pass without our com¬ 
mending ourselves earnestly to her motherly heart, for 
she is even more interested in our welfare than we our¬ 
selves. She is powerful to aid us, since all good things 
come to us through her; and she will choose for her 
devout clients the career in which they may best serve 
God. 

By a strange perversion of mind, we often seek to 
unravel the perplexities of life, without recourse to 
prayer. When involved in business anxieties, men 
spend days of worry in wrestling with them, without 
perhaps asking the Father of Lights for guidance. 
And the young also, who must settle for themselves 
their future career, frequently strive to do so, without 
the help of heaven. They perhaps consult human ad- 


68 


WHAT SHALL I BE? 


visers, but fail to consult God, the best of counsellors, 
Who alone can see behind the veil of the future, and 
infallibly tell what is best for us. 

In coming to any important decision, light and 
strength are needed, light to know the pathway of 
duty, and strength to follow it. On account of the 
obscurities and half-lights of our intellect, we perceive 
but dimly, and often fail to discern the true from the 
false. The illumination of the white light of Truth is 
needed to flood the dark recesses of the mind. And 
even when the truth stands clearly revealed, we are 
often too indolent or enervated to embrace it; we need 
the tonic of resolution and courage, which can be in¬ 
fused into us only from on high. 

The trustful child of God should, day by day, com¬ 
mend his future into the hands of his heavenly Father, 
praying Him to shape his life and career. Each one 
has his own talents, one or many, but he cannot hope 
to trade or barter with them in a fruitful way unless 
the Giver of them bless his efforts. Our constant 
prayer, then, should be for the fulfilment of God’s will 
in our regard, with the lively faith that whatever we 
ask will be granted. 

And of all prayers and devotions, can any be more 
efficacious or salutary than the frequent reception of 
the Holy Eucharist? Our Holy Father, Pius X, de¬ 
sires the boys and girls of the whole world to be 
nourished daily, from the tenderest years, with the 
Bread of Life, that they may wax strong in the spiri¬ 
tual life, and grow up virile Christians. One Holy 
Communion, received fervently, should be sufficient to 
sanctify a soul and awake in it the desire of closest 
union with Christ, of self-immolation on the altar of 
Divine Love. 

Then what of the soul which is daily nourished with 
the “Wheat of the Elect and the Wine that springeth 
forth Virgins?” (Zach. ix: 17.) Holy Communion 
has been styled the “Marriage Supper of the Lamb,” 


A PARTING WORD 


69 


wherein Christ caresses the soul, communicates to it 
sweetest secrets, and touching it with the ardent flames 
of His own Heart, purifies it from attachment to 
creatures, and sets it aglow with the white heat of 
charity. The frequent communicant, then, is surest of 
knowing and doing God’s will. 

In conclusion, the writer may be allowed to indulge 
the hope that more than one reader may be impelled 
to aspire to the virgin’s aureole, the special privilege of 
joining the one hundred and forty-four thousand, 
whom St. john, in the vision of the Apocalypse, saw 
following the Lamb, whithersoever He went, and sing¬ 
ing a canticle that none else could sing, “because they 
were virgins.” 


Go now, little book, fly away to some perplexed soul 
who is anxious to discover the secrets of the Divine 
Will; and whisper it a message of peace and consola¬ 
tion, telling it that, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
nor hath it entered into the heart of man, what 
things God hath prepared for them that love Him.” 
(I Cor. ii: 9.) 



PRAYER FOR THE RIGHT CHOICE OF 
A STATE OF LIFE. 


O Thou, the God of wisdom and counsel, 
Who dost perceive in my heart a sincere de¬ 
sire of pleasing Thee alone, and of conforming 
myself entirely to Thy most holy will in the 
choice of my state of life, grant me, I beseech 
Thee, through the intercession of the Blessed 
Virgin, my mother, and of my patron saints, 
especially St. Joseph and St. Aloysius, the 
grace to know what state of life I should 
choose, and when known to embrace it, so that 
I may seek and spread therein Thy glory, work 
out my salvation, and merit that reward in 
heaven which Thou hast promised to those 
who fulfill Thy divine will. Amen. 


An indulgence of three hundred days, once 
a day, for the above prayer, granted by Pope 
Pius X, May 2, 1905. 


70 






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